Author response: Formicine ants swallow their highly acidic poison for gut microbial selection and control

Tragust, Simon; Herrmann, Claudia; Häfner, Jane; Braasch, Ronja; Tilgen, Christina; Hoock, Maria; Milidakis, Margarita Artemis; Gross, Roy; Feldhaar, Heike

doi:10.7554/elife.60287.sa2

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Factors that can influence the stability of associated microbiota in animals mainly include host immunity (McMillan and Adamo, 2020), host diet (Tragust et al, 2020;Pan et al, 2021), and inhabited environment (Kudo et al, 2019;Cini et al, 2020;Nishino et al, 2021). In addition, some environmental microbes, especially animal pathogens, interact with the associated microbiota.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial Inhibition on Beauveria bassiana Contributes to Microbiota Stability in Delia antiqua

et al. 2021

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Given the multiple roles of associated microbiota in improving animal host fitness in a microbial environment, increasing numbers of researchers have focused on how the associated microbiota keeps stable under complex environmental factors, especially some biological ones. Recent studies show that associated microbiota interacts with pathogenic microbes. However, whether and how the interaction would influence microbiota stability is limitedly investigated. Based on the interaction among Delia antiqua, its associated microbiota, and one pathogen Beauveria bassiana, the associated microbiota's response to the pathogen was determined in this study. Besides, the underlying mechanism for the response was also preliminarily investigated. Results showed that B. bassiana neither infect D. antiqua larvae nor did it colonize inside the associated microbiota, and both the bacterial and fungal microbiota kept stable during the interaction. Further experiments showed that bacterial microbiota almost completely inhibited conidial germination and mycelial growth of B. bassiana during its invasion, while fungal microbiota did not inhibit conidial germination and mycelial growth of B. bassiana. According to the above results, individual dominant bacterial species were isolated, and their inhibition on conidial germination and mycelial growth of B. bassiana was reconfirmed. Thus, these results indicated that bacterial instead of fungal microbiota blocked B. bassiana conidia and stabilized the associated microbiota of D. antiqua larvae during B. bassiana invasion. The findings deepened the understanding of the role of associated microbiota–pathogen microbe interaction in maintaining microbiota stability. They may also contribute to the development of novel biological control agents and pest management strategies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial Inhibition on Beauveria bassiana Contributes to Microbiota Stability in Delia antiqua

et al. 2021

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Prophylactic Avoidance of Hazardous Prey by the Ant Host Myrmica rubra

Pereira

Detrain

2020

Insects

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Ants are the hosts of many microorganisms, including pathogens that are incidentally brought inside the nest by foragers. This is particularly true for scavenging species, which collect hazardous food such as dead insects. Foragers limit sanitary risks by not retrieving highly infectious prey releasing entomopathogenic fungal spores. This study investigates whether similar prophylactic strategies are also developed for food associated with weak or delayed risks of fungal contamination. We compared, in Myrmica rubra ant colonies, the retrieval dynamics of dead flies that were (1) conidia-free, (2) covered with a low amount of Metarhizium brunneum entomopathogenic conidia or (3) recently fungus-killed but not yet sporulating. Foragers mostly avoided fungus-killed prey and delayed the retrieval of conidia-covered flies. A second sanitary filter occurred inside the nest through a careful inspection of the retrieved prey. Ultimately, ants mostly consumed conidia-free and conidia-covered flies, but they relocated and discarded all fungus-killed prey outside of the nest. Our study confirms that, as a host of generalist entomopathogenic fungi, Myrmica rubra ants have developed a prophylactic avoidance and a differential management of prey depending on their infectious potential. We discuss the functional value as well as the possible cues underlying pathogen avoidance and prey discrimination in ants.

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Author response: Formicine ants swallow their highly acidic poison for gut microbial selection and control

Cited by 2 publications

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Bacterial Inhibition on Beauveria bassiana Contributes to Microbiota Stability in Delia antiqua

Bacterial Inhibition on Beauveria bassiana Contributes to Microbiota Stability in Delia antiqua

Prophylactic Avoidance of Hazardous Prey by the Ant Host Myrmica rubra

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