Sensitivity of ant (&lt;i&gt;Cephalotes&lt;/i&gt;) colonies and individuals to antibiotics implies feeding symbiosis with gut microorganisms

Jaffé, Klaus; Caetano, Flávio Henrique; Sánchez, Pedro L.; Hernández, José V.; Caraballo, Leonardo Javier; Vitelli–Flores, Juana; Monsalve, Wilmer; Dorta, Blas; Lemoine, Vidal Rodrı́guez

doi:10.1139/cjz-79-6-1120

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Those indicator taxa, which were consistently present throughout the sampling period in either the nests or the reference soils, were identified as core indicators of their respective environment. Several of the bacterial core indicators of the nests encompassed taxa, which are significantly associated with, or symbiotic to, ants, such as the bacterial genera Pseudonocardia (Folgarait et al, 2011), Streptomyces (Sen et al, 2009) Burkholderia, Methylobacterium (Van Borm et al, 2002, and Brevundimonas (Jaffe et al, 2001), as well as the fungal core indicator Exophiala (Duarte et al, 2014). These may represent members of the microbiome that forms symbiotic relationships with the ants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ants reign over a distinct microbiome in forest soil

Lindström

Timonen

Sundström

et al. 2019

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

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Biotic and abiotic characteristics shape the microbial communities in the soil environment. Manipulation of soil, performed by ants when constructing their nests, radically changes the soil characteristics and creates a unique environment, which differs in its composition, frequency and abundance of microbial taxa, from those in the reference soils. We sampled nests of the moundbuilding ant Formica exsecta, and the surrounding reference soils over a three-month period, and generated NGS (Illumina MiSeq), and T-RFLP data of the bacterial and fungal communities. We used ordination techniques and network analysis to disclose the community structure, and we assessed the variation in diversity, evenness and enrichment of taxa between the two environments. We also used indicator analysis to identify the potential core microbiome of the nests. Our results show that the bacterial and fungal communities, in the rigorously curated nest environment, are significantly different from those in the reference soils, in terms of community structure and enrichment of characteristic indicator taxa. We demonstrate that the nests represent a niche, where microbial species can adapt and diverge from the communities in the surrounding soils. Our findings contribute to our understanding of the composition and function of microbiomes in fragmented habitats.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ants reign over a distinct microbiome in forest soil

Lindström

Timonen

Sundström

et al. 2019

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

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“…Expectedly then, worker ants were attracted to fresh bird excreta (Figure 2). While ants are known to forage on bird excreta (Kaspari, 1993;Jaffe et al, 2001;Sainz-Borgo, 2015), their olfactory attraction to bird excreta has not previously been reported. Bird excreta are nutritionally valuable to carpenter ants not only as a protein source, but also as a source of uric acid and urea.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Floral and Bird Excreta Semiochemicals Attract Western Carpenter Ants

et al. 2022

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Ant colonies have vast and diverse nutritional needs but forager ants have limited mobility to meet these needs. Forager ants would accrue significant energy savings if they were able to sense and orient toward odor plumes of both carbohydrate and protein food sources. Moreover, if worker ants, like other flightless insects, had reduced olfactory acuity, they would not recognize the specific odor signatures of diverse carbohydrate and protein sources, but they may be able to orient toward those odorants that are shared between (macronutrient) food sources. Using the Western carpenter ant, Camponotus modoc, as a model species, we tested the hypotheses that (1) food sources rich in carbohydrates (aphid honeydew, floral nectar) and rich in proteins (bird excreta, house mouse carrion, cow liver infested or not with fly maggots) all prompt long-distance, anemotactic attraction of worker ants, and (2) attraction of ants to plant inflorescences (fireweed, Chamaenerion angustifolium; thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus; and hardhack, Spiraea douglasii) is mediated by shared floral odorants. In moving-air Y-tube olfactometer bioassays, ants were attracted to two of four carbohydrate sources (thimbleberry and fireweed), and one of four protein sources (bird excreta). Headspace volatiles of these three attractive sources were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and synthetic odor blends of thimbleberry (7 components), fireweed (23 components), and bird excreta (38 components) were prepared. In Y-tube olfactometer bioassays, synthetic blends of thimbleberry and fireweed but not of bird excreta attracted ants, indicating that only the two floral blends contained all essential attractants. A blend of components shared between thimbleberry and fireweed was not attractive to ants. Our data support the conclusion that C. modoc worker ants can sense and orient toward both carbohydrate and protein food sources. As ants were selective in their responses to carbohydrate and protein resources, it seems that they can discern between specific food odor profiles and that they have good, rather than poor, olfactory acuity.

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Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants

Russell

Moreau²,

Goldman-Huertas³

et al. 2009

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

339

463

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Ants are a dominant feature of terrestrial ecosystems, yet we know little about the forces that drive their evolution. Recent findings illustrate that their diets range from herbivorous to predaceous, with ''herbivores'' feeding primarily on exudates from plants and sap-feeding insects. Persistence on these nitrogen-poor food sources raises the question of how ants obtain sufficient nutrition. To investigate the potential role of symbiotic microbes, we have surveyed 283 species from 18 of the 21 ant subfamilies using molecular techniques. Our findings uncovered a wealth of bacteria from across the ants. Notable among the surveyed hosts were herbivorous ''turtle ants'' from the related genera Cephalotes and Procryptocerus (tribe Cephalotini). These commonly harbored bacteria from ant-specific clades within the Burkholderiales, Pseudomonadales, Rhizobiales, Verrucomicrobiales, and Xanthomonadales, and studies of lab-reared Cephalotes varians characterized these microbes as symbiotic residents of ant guts. Although most of these symbionts were confined to turtle ants, bacteria from an ant-specific clade of Rhizobiales were more broadly distributed. Statistical analyses revealed a strong relationship between herbivory and the prevalence of Rhizobiales gut symbionts within ant genera. Furthermore, a consideration of the ant phylogeny identified at least five independent origins of symbioses between herbivorous ants and related Rhizobiales. Combined with previous findings and the potential for symbiotic nitrogen fixation, our results strongly support the hypothesis that bacteria have facilitated convergent evolution of herbivory across the ants, further implicating symbiosis as a major force in ant evolution. diversification ͉ Formicidae ͉ Rhizobiales ͉ symbiosis ͉ trophic level I dentifying the mechanisms underlying adaptation and diversification is a central goal of evolutionary biology. Great strides have been made toward this end through the development of fast and affordable molecular tools, and the joint application of molecular phylogenetics and comparative methods (1-3). One unanticipated theme that has emerged from this work is that bacterial symbionts have played key roles in the evolution and diversification of eukaryotes, starting with endosymbiotic origins of mitochondria and chloroplasts (4). Bacterial symbionts are also prevalent among insects that feed on inaccessible or nutritionally marginal diets such as blood, wood, xylem, and phloem (5). Given the demonstrated nutritional roles of these bacteria, their near-ubiquity in insects that specialize on nutrient-poor diets, their long histories of coevolution, and the diversity of the many groups that harbor nutritional symbionts, it is clear that bacteria have had a strong impact on the dietary evolution and diversification of their insect hosts (6).Symbiosis has played an integral role in the evolution of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Throughout the course of their 115-168 million year history (7,8), these diverse and ecologically dominant insects...

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Sensitivity of ant (<i>Cephalotes</i>) colonies and individuals to antibiotics implies feeding symbiosis with gut microorganisms

Cited by 7 publications

References 6 publications

Ants reign over a distinct microbiome in forest soil

Ants reign over a distinct microbiome in forest soil

Floral and Bird Excreta Semiochemicals Attract Western Carpenter Ants

Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants

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