Specialized Fungal Parasites and Opportunistic Fungi in Gardens of Attine Ants

Pagnocca, Fernando Carlos; Masiulionis, Virginia E.; Rodrigues, André

doi:10.1155/2012/905109

Cited by 31 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 78 publications

(109 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Microbial pathogens from the surrounding soil of the nest and microorganisms brought into the nest because of the foraging behavior of the leaf‐cutting ants potentially threaten the garden fungus as well as the leaf‐cutting ants′ survival . Therefore, leaf‐cutting ants control the growth of adverse microbes in their fungus gardens by chemical treatment and weeding behavior .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secondary Metabolites from Escovopsis weberi and Their Role in Attacking the Garden Fungus of Leaf‐Cutting Ants

Dhodary

Schilg

Wirth

et al. 2018

Chemistry A European J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The specialized, fungal pathogen Escovopsis weberi threatens the mutualistic symbiosis between leaf-cutting ants and their garden fungus (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus). Because E. weberi can overwhelm L. gongylophorus without direct contact, it was suspected to secrete toxins. Using NMR and mass spectrometry, we identified several secondary metabolites produced by E. weberi. E. weberi produces five shearinine-type indole triterpenoids including two novel derivatives, shearinine L and shearinine M, as well as the polyketides, emodin and cycloarthropsone. Cycloarthropsone and emodin strongly inhibited the growth of the garden fungus L. gongylophorous at 0.8 and 0.7 μmol, respectively. Emodin was also active against Streptomyces microbial symbionts (0.3 μmol) of leaf-cutting ants. Shearinine L instead did not affect the growth of L. gongylophorus in agar diffusion assays. However, in dual choice behavioral assays Acromyrmex octospinosus ants clearly avoided substrate treated with shearinine L for the garden fungus after a 2 d learning period, indicating that the ants quickly learn to avoid shearinine L.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secondary Metabolites from Escovopsis weberi and Their Role in Attacking the Garden Fungus of Leaf‐Cutting Ants

Dhodary

Schilg

Wirth

et al. 2018

Chemistry A European J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition, fungus gardens are subject to contamination by microbes originating from soil and plant material (Carreiro et al 1997 Pagnocca et al 2012). These may be controlled by grooming behaviour and by antibiotics produced by bacteria ( Pseudonocardia spp.)…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging of Psilocybe basidiocarps by the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex lobicornis in Santa Fé, Argentina

Masiulionis

Weber²,

Pagnocca

2013

SpringerPlus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundIt is generally accepted that material collected by leaf-cutting ants of the genus Acromyrmex consists solely of plant matter, which is used in the nest as substrate for a symbiotic fungus providing nutrition to the ants. There is only one previous report of any leaf-cutting ant foraging directly on fungal basidiocarps.FindingsBasidiocarps of Psilocybe coprophila growing on cow dung were actively collected by workers of Acromyrmex lobicornis in Santa Fé province, Argentina. During this behaviour the ants displayed typical signals of recognition and continuously recruited other foragers to the task. Basidiocarps of different stages of maturity were being transported into the nest by particular groups of workers, while other workers collected plant material.ConclusionsThe collection of mature basidiocarps with viable spores by leaf-cutting ants in nature adds substance to theories relating to the origin of fungiculture in these highly specialized social insects.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-2-254) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

“…The same behavior was observed in the present study, with a proliferation of fungi occurring after application of insecticide, and the emergence of filamentous fungi and yeast. These fungi can exert a symbiotic role with ants (POULSEN & CURRIE, 2006) or opportunistic antagonist behavior (PAGNOCCA et al, 2012).…”

Section: Treatmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Ascomycota) also exists, which are specialized parasites to the fungus L. Gongylophorus (CURRIE et al, 1999;REYNOLDS & CURRIE,2004). There are, also, several less specialized fungi and yeasts in their fungiculture, most of them with uncertain effect, but probably ranging from opportunistic parasite to saprophyticor being symbiont auxiliary (CURRIE et al, 1999;RODRIGUES et al, 2005;MENDES et al, 2012;PAGNOCCA et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lack of correlation between micro fungi species and chemical control method of Atta treated with toxic baits

Barbosa

Nagamoto

et al. 2018

Cienc. Rural

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Atta sexdens rubropilosa (leaf-cutter ants) has a symbiotic association with a fungus and has a negative interaction with other fungi due to parasitism of the fungus cultivated by ants; also, there are several other fungi with no exact known role occurring in their cultivated fungus garden. In the present study, we use the ITS region (internal transcribed spacer) to identify fungi in colonies treated with toxic baits. Experiments using two toxic baits were carried out: 0.75g of sulfluramid [0.3%] and 0.75g fipronil [0.003%]. Samples of fungi were collected and cultured in Czapek medium for seven days to allow fungal growth and subsequent identification. Total DNA was isolated from 100-150 mg of mycelium using the CTAB method and using PCR, with the universal primers (ITS4 and ITS5), to amplify the ITS region. Sequencing was performed using the Sanger method. Sequences were subjected to BLAST, allowing the identification of nine different species of the orders Agaricales, Eurotiales, Hypocreales, Pleosporales, Saccharomycetales and Tremellales showing a variation in identity of 96-100%. Using “The Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery” analysis, nine groups were identified, corresponding to species described in NCBI. The K2P distances were used to generate a tree using Neighbour-joining, demonstrating that the species were grouped according to phylogenetic groups. We concluded that leaf-cutter ant colonies exhibited a wide variety of fungi and this study suggested that there is no correlation between the species of fungi isolated with the control method used on the ant nest.

show abstract

Specialized Fungal Parasites and Opportunistic Fungi in Gardens of Attine Ants

Cited by 31 publications

References 78 publications

Secondary Metabolites from Escovopsis weberi and Their Role in Attacking the Garden Fungus of Leaf‐Cutting Ants

Secondary Metabolites from Escovopsis weberi and Their Role in Attacking the Garden Fungus of Leaf‐Cutting Ants

Foraging of Psilocybe basidiocarps by the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex lobicornis in Santa Fé, Argentina

Lack of correlation between micro fungi species and chemical control method of Atta treated with toxic baits

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About