Leucoagaricus weberi sp. nov. from a live nest of leaf-cutting ants

Muchovej, J. J.; Lucia, T.M. Della; Muchovej, R. M. C.

doi:10.1016/s0953-7562(09)80581-9

Cited by 27 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Although only two species of Escovopsis have been previously described (each was isolated on one occasion from a single attine garden; see ref. 27), the specific habitat of this fungus and the limited scope of previous mycological studies of attine gardens has apparently resulted in an underestimation of the species diversity of the genus. The exact mechanisms of pathogenicity by Escovopsis remain unclear.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The agricultural pathology of ant fungus gardens

Currie

Mueller

Malloch

1999

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

345

447

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Gardens of fungus-growing ants (Formicidae: Attini) traditionally have been thought to be free of microbial parasites, with the fungal mutualist maintained in nearly pure ''monocultures.'' We conducted extensive isolations of ''alien'' (nonmutualistic) fungi from ant gardens of a phylogenetically representative collection of attine ants. Contrary to the long-standing assumption that gardens are maintained free of microbial pathogens and parasites, they are in fact host to specialized parasites that are only known from attine gardens and that are found in most attine nests. These specialized garden parasites, belonging to the microfungus genus Escovopsis (Ascomycota: anamorphic Hypocreales), are horizontally transmitted between colonies. Consistent with theory of virulence evolution under this mode of pathogen transmission, Escovopsis is highly virulent and has the potential for rapid devastation of ant gardens, leading to colony mortality. The specialized parasite Escovopsis is more prevalent in gardens of the more derived ant lineages than in gardens of the more ''primitive'' (basal) ant lineages. Because fungal cultivars of derived attine lineages are asexual clones of apparently ancient origin whereas cultivars of primitive ant lineages were domesticated relatively recently from free-living sexual stocks, the increased virulence of pathogens associated with ancient asexual cultivars suggests an evolutionary cost to cultivar clonality, perhaps resulting from slower evolutionary rates of cultivars in the coevolutionary race with their pathogens.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The agricultural pathology of ant fungus gardens

Currie

Mueller

Malloch

1999

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

345

447

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“…The traditional methods for fungal taxonomy and systematics depend on the morphology of fruiting structures; however, the fungi cultivated by attine ants do not readily produce these sexual structures in association with the ants or in pure culture (31,52,55). Although there generally has been a consensus that the fungi are basidiomycetes, likely in the order Agaricales (52, 88), definitive generic identification was not possible prior to the recent development of molecular phylogenetic techniques.…”

Section: Fungi Cultivated By Fungus-growing Antsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Community of Ants, Fungi, and Bacteria: A Multilateral Approach to Studying Symbiosis

Currie

2001

Annu. Rev. Microbiol.

281

219

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▪ Abstract The ancient and highly evolved mutualism between fungus-growing ants and their fungi is a textbook example of symbiosis. The ants carefully tend the fungus, which serves as their main food source, and traditionally are believed to be so successful at fungal cultivation that they are able to maintain the fungus free of microbial pathogens. This assumption is surprising in light of theories on the evolution of parasitism, especially for those species of ants that have been clonally propagating their cultivars for millions of years. Recent work has established that, as theoretically predicted, the gardens of fungus-growing ants are host to a specialized, virulent, and highly evolved fungal pathogen in the genus Escovopsis. In addition, the ants have evolved a mutualistic association with filamentous bacteria (actinomycetes) that produce antibiotics that suppress the growth of Escovopsis. Thus, the attine symbiosis appears to be a coevolutionary “arms race” between the garden parasite Escovopsis on the one hand and the ant-fungus-actinomycete tripartite mutualism on the other. These recent findings indicate that microbes may be key components in the regulation of other symbiotic associations between higher organisms.

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“…It is therefore no surprise that vertical transmission of cultivars is already present in the lower attines and possibly represents a trait that predated the origin of fungus rearing in the attine tribe . Even the mutualistic fungi of the higher attines are known to fruit on occasions (Muchovej et al 1991;Dö rfelt and Creutzburg 1994;Fisher et al 1994 and references therein). This form of sexual reproduction sometimes occurs after horizontal transmission of, or contamination with, alien fungi.…”

Section: Natural History Of the Model Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partial Incompatibility Between Ants and Symbiotic Fungi in Two Sympatric Species of Acromyrmex Leaf-Cutting Ants

2001

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Abstract. We investigate the nature and duration of incompatibility between certain combinations of Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants and symbiotic fungi, taken from sympatric colonies of the same or a related species. Ant-fungus incompatibility appeared to be largely independent of the ant species involved, but could be explained partly by genetic differences among the fungus cultivars. Following current theoretical considerations, we develop a hypothesis, originally proposed by S. A. Frank, that the observed incompatibilities are ultimately due to competitive interactions between genetically different fungal lineages, and we predict that the ants should have evolved mechanisms to prevent such competition between cultivars within a single garden. This requires that the ants are able to recognize unfamiliar fungi, and we show that this is indeed the case. Amplified fragment length polymorphism genotyping further shows that the two sympatric Acromyrmex species share each other's major lineages of cultivar, confirming that horizontal transfer does occasionally take place. We argue and provide some evidence that chemical substances produced by the fungus garden may mediate recognition of alien fungi by the ants. We show that incompatibility between ants and transplanted, genetically different cultivars is indeed due to active killing of the novel cultivar by the ants. This incompatibility disappears when ants are force-fed the novel cultivar for about a week, a result that is consistent with our hypothesis of recognition induced by the resident fungus and eventual replacement of incompatibility compounds during force-feeding.

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Leucoagaricus weberi sp. nov. from a live nest of leaf-cutting ants

Cited by 27 publications

References 4 publications

The agricultural pathology of ant fungus gardens

The agricultural pathology of ant fungus gardens

A Community of Ants, Fungi, and Bacteria: A Multilateral Approach to Studying Symbiosis

Partial Incompatibility Between Ants and Symbiotic Fungi in Two Sympatric Species of Acromyrmex Leaf-Cutting Ants

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