Susceptibility of Atta sexdens worker ants treated with the immunosuppressant Sandimmun Neoral to Metarhizium anisopliae

Dornelas, Aline Silvestre Pereira; Sarmento, Renato Almeida; Pedro‐Neto, Marçal; Silva, Daniella Gonçalves da; Santos, Gil Rodrigues dos; Nascimento, Mariela Otoni do; Oliveira, Cléia Almeida de; Souza, Danival José de

doi:10.1590/s0100-204x2017000200008

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…(2017) ; Canali (2017) ; do Nascimento et al. (2017) ; Dornelas et al. (2017) ; Polezel (2017) ; Rocha et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Folgarait,

Goffré

2023

Front. Fungal Biol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

“…(2017) ; Canali (2017) ; do Nascimento et al. (2017) ; Dornelas et al. (2017) ; Polezel (2017) ; Rocha et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Folgarait,

Goffré

2023

Front. Fungal Biol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Once toxic substances are capable of overcoming insect immunity barriers (individually and collectively) [47,48], the development research on strategies to impair the colony organization through immunosuppression, weakening the humoral system of the ants, is fundamental. Such strategies often include the use of chemical substances [49].…”

Section: Use Of Synthetic Chemicalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaf-Cutter Ants and Microbial Control

Travaglini¹,

Vieira²,

AndréArnosti³

et al. 2018

The Complex World of Ants

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The attini tribe comprises fungusgrowing ants, such as the basal Apterostigma and other more specialized genera, including the higher attine and the ones that cut the fresh plant tissue (Atta and Acromyrmex), maintaining an obligatory mutualistic relation with the fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, which serves as a food source for the ants. Leaf-cutter ants are considered agriculture pests and populate the soil, a rich environment, especially due to the presence of several microorganisms. Some of these microorganisms are natural enemies that may cause epizootics (quickly spreading opportunistic diseases). Such defence strategies include polyethism, that is, division of labor among the individuals. The older ants take on the responsibility of foraging, as their integument is harder and heavily sclerotized, serving as a protective barrier against pathogens (including bacteria and antagonistic fungi). The younger ants, whose metapleural glands synthetize important secretions to eliminate and control microorganisms that could attack the colony fungus garden and the immature (larvae and pupae), remain inside the colony cultivating symbiont fungi. The sum of the survival strategies of ants in general, including social immunity and nest-cleaning behavior, represents a barrier for the application of biological control programs, mainly microbial ones.

show abstract

“…Although many biological control products based on microorganisms with entomopathogenic and antagonistic activities against the mutualistic fungus have been developed (Lopez & Orduz, 2003;Silva et al, 2006) their effectiveness has been questioned (Della Lucia et al, 2014;Dornelas et al, 2017;Loreto & Hughes, 2016). The invasion and colonisation of nests by pathogens is a limiting factor, due to the deployment of collective and individual defence mechanisms that act synergistically (Cremer & Sixt;Hughes et al, 2002;Siva-Jothy et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacterial microbiota associated with the leaf‐cutting ant Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Myrmicinae): Dynamics during development and potential role in defence

Valencia‐Giraldo,

Gutiérrez‐Urrego,

Niño‐Castro

et al. 2023

Physiological Entomology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The biological complexity of leaf‐cutting ants is determined in part by both positive and negative associations with microorganisms. These ants constantly face microorganisms that can compromise workers’ survival and the integrity of their symbiont fungus. The ability to produce antimicrobial compounds within the colony, both by the workers and by associated microorganisms, is an adaptive response that protects against these natural enemies. Atta cephalotes (Linnaeus, 1758) is an ecologically successful species with a great capacity to overcome pathogenic microorganisms. In contrast to the Acromyrmex genus, the evidence suggests that it does not maintain an association with antibiotic‐producing actinobacteria raising the question of whether this species maintains associations with bacterial communities that can potentially protect the colony against prejudicial microorganisms. In this direction, the diversity and composition of the culturable bacterial microbiota associated with A. cephalotes developmental stages were evaluated, as well as their potential to inhibit the growth of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae and the mycoparasite Trichoderma sp. Six nests were collected, of which a total of 900 larvae, 900 pupae and 900 adult workers were analysed. Culture‐dependent and molecular methods were used to identify the strains to genus level. To determine differences in bacterial composition in the development stages, analysis of the contribution to dissimilarity (SIMPER) were performed. Seventy‐seven strains corresponding to 18 genera were documented. Acinetobacter was the dominant one. On the other hand, Acinetobacter, Bacillus, Enterobacter, Serratia and Microbacterium were maintained from the larval to the adult stage. Furthermore, except for Acinetobacter, different strains of these bacterial groups significantly inhibited pathogenic fungi growth. The results suggest the existence of a persistent association of A. cephalotes with strains of these bacterial genera and a potential role in defence at the collective level.

show abstract

Susceptibility of Atta sexdens worker ants treated with the immunosuppressant Sandimmun Neoral to Metarhizium anisopliae

Cited by 7 publications

References 9 publications

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

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

Leaf-Cutter Ants and Microbial Control

Bacterial microbiota associated with the leaf‐cutting ant Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Myrmicinae): Dynamics during development and potential role in defence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About