Behavioral Response of the Leaf-Cutting Ant Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) to Trichoderma sp.

Cotazo-Calambas, K. M.; Niño-Castro, Andrea; Valencia-Giraldo, Sandra Milena; Gómez‐Díaz, J. S.; Lerma, James Montoya

doi:10.1007/s10905-022-09800-9

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…In this case, Trichoderma-derived peptaibols induce the well-known hygienic weeding behaviour of ants, consisting of the removal of infected fungus garden fragments as an additional defense strategy. [95][96][97][98][99] Peptaibols, which are part of a vast family of linear, amphipathic polypeptides, are formed through the fungal NRPS pathway and typically comprised of 5-20 amino acid residues, with most of them being non-proteinogenic. [100][101][102] Among the different identied peptaibols that induce ant waste production, two of them are previously undescribed and were named trichokindins VIII (4) and IX (5).…”

Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The insect microbiome is a vast source of bioactive small molecules

Grundmann,

Guzman,

Vilcinskas

et al. 2024

Nat. Prod. Rep.

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Section: Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The insect microbiome is a vast source of bioactive small molecules

Grundmann,

Guzman,

Vilcinskas

et al. 2024

Nat. Prod. Rep.

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“…its symbiotic fungi). The most studied fungal genera with mycotrophic characteristics are Escovopsis and Trichoderma ( Marfetán et al., 2018 ; Cotazo-Calambas et al., 2022 ). These and other microorganisms access the fungal gardens and become a threat to the entire colony if they become abundant ( Jiménez-Gómez et al., 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control of pest ants by pathogenic fungi: state of the art

Folgarait,

Goffré

2023

Front. Fungal Biol.

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Pest ants are known for their damage to biodiversity, harm to agriculture, and negative impact on human welfare. Ants thrive when environmental opportunities arise, becoming pests and/or invading non-native areas. As social insects, they are extremely difficult to control using sustainable methods like biological control. The latter, although safer to the environment, acts slowly allowing the ants to use their individual and social defenses. Among biocontrol agents, fungal pathogens were proposed as promising, however, it is difficult to ascertain their success when the bibliography has not been reviewed and condensed. Therefore, this paper is the first in performing such task by analyzing publications mainly from 2000 to 2022 about the control of pest ants by fungi. From 85 publications selected, 77% corresponded to laboratory studies. Beauveria and Metarhizium were the genera most used in laboratory and field studies. Most of them included Acromyrmex and Atta leaf-cutter ants (LCA), and Solenopsis fire ants. From laboratory experiments, we evaluated how ant net mortality was affected by ant and fungal species, and also by origin, concentration, and inoculation technique of the fungal strains tested. Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae produced the greatest mortality, along with the inoculation spray technique and fungal strains collected from ants. There was a positive relationship between ant mortality and fungal concentration only for those studies which evaluated more than one concentration. Twenty field experimental studies were found, covering 13 pest species, mainly LCA and Solenopsis invicta. Only B. bassiana was tested on Solenopsis, M. anisopliae was mostly used for Acromyrmex, and M. anisopliae or Trichoderma were mainly used with Atta species. The median control field efficiency varied from 20% to 85% for different fungi and ant genera. When grouping all fungal species together, the median control efficiency seemed to be better for Acromyrmex (67%) than for Atta and Solenopsis (both 43%). Our review shows that, at this stage of knowledge, it is very difficult to extrapolate any result. We offer suggestions to improve and standardize laboratory and field experimental studies in order to advance more efficiently in the fungal control of pest ants.

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“…Ant behavioral defenses include grooming their own bodies and those of their nestmates (24), task partitioning between different members of the colony (25–27), and pre-processing of foraged material before its incorporation into the fungus garden (28, 29). Fungus garden grooming (removal of pathogen spores by moving fungus garden hyphae through ant mouthparts) and especially weeding (removal of infected fungus garden fragments) represent important ant behavioral responses to fungal pathogens that have invaded the fungus garden (17, 27, 30, 31). Although these defensive responses have been described in detail, how fungus-growing ants detect threats to their fungus gardens remains poorly understood (32).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trachymyrmex septentrionalisants promote fungus garden hygiene usingTrichoderma-derived metabolite cues

Kyle

Puckett

Caraballo‐Rodríguez

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Fungus-growing ants depend on a fungal mutualist that can fall prey to fungal pathogens. This mutualist is cultivated by these ants in structures called fungus gardens. Ants exhibit weeding behaviors that keep their garden healthy by physically removing compromised pieces. However, how ants detect diseases of their fungus gardens is unknown. Here, we applied the logic of Koch's postulates using environmental fungal community genomic sequencing, fungal isolation, and in vitro infection experiments to establish Trichoderma spp. as pathogens of Trachymyrmex septentrionalis fungus gardens. Our environmental data showed that Trichoderma are the most abundant non-cultivar fungi in wild T. septentrionalis fungus gardens. We further determined that metabolites produced by Trichoderma induce an ant weeding response that mirrors their response to live Trichoderma. Combining ant behavioral experiments with bioactivity-guided fractionation and statistical prioritization of metabolites in Trichoderma extracts demonstrated that T. septentrionalis ants weed in response to peptaibols, a specific class of secondary metabolites known to be produced by Trichoderma fungi. Similar assays conducted using purified peptaibols, including the two new peptaibols trichokindins VIII and IX, suggested that weeding is likely induced by peptaibols as a class rather than by a single peptaibol metabolite. In addition to their presence in laboratory experiments, we detected peptaibols in wild fungus gardens. Our combination of environmental data and in vitro experiments strongly support that peptaibols act as chemical cues of Trichoderma pathogenesis in T. septentrionalis fungus gardens.

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Behavioral Response of the Leaf-Cutting Ant Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) to Trichoderma sp.

Cited by 8 publications

References 78 publications

The insect microbiome is a vast source of bioactive small molecules

The insect microbiome is a vast source of bioactive small molecules

Control of pest ants by pathogenic fungi: state of the art

Trachymyrmex septentrionalisants promote fungus garden hygiene usingTrichoderma-derived metabolite cues

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