Zombie-ant fungi cross continents: II. Myrmecophilous hymenostilboid species and a novel zombie lineage

Araújo, João P. M.; Evans, H. C.; Fernandes, Itanna O.; Ishler, Melissa J.; Hughes, David

doi:10.1080/00275514.2020.1822093

Cited by 26 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 49 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Samples of dead, Ophiocordyceps ‐infected ants have been collected from tropical and temperate forests all over the globe 50‐55 …”

Section: Current Evidence For the Hijacking Of Ant Behavioural Rhythm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Samples of dead, Ophiocordyceps ‐infected ants have been collected from tropical and temperate forests all over the globe. 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 These biodiversity studies so far suggest that every ant species that is parasitized by a unique Ophiocordyceps species has specialized to infect that host. When a given species interaction results in an elevated death position (i.e., the summiting position), or when its fungus‐sprouting cadavers are found in areas outside of the ants’ general ecological niche, 53 , 55 this suggests that the fungal infection has caused the ant to end up there.…”

Section: Current Evidence For the Hijacking Of Ant Behavioural Rhythm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 These biodiversity studies so far suggest that every ant species that is parasitized by a unique Ophiocordyceps species has specialized to infect that host. When a given species interaction results in an elevated death position (i.e., the summiting position), or when its fungus‐sprouting cadavers are found in areas outside of the ants’ general ecological niche, 53 , 55 this suggests that the fungal infection has caused the ant to end up there. While manipulation of host behaviour does not occur for some Ophiocordyceps ‐ant interactions, most species pairs seem to end up in elevated positions, hanging onto plant tissues with the ant's mandibles and legs.…”

Section: Current Evidence For the Hijacking Of Ant Behavioural Rhythm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Hijacking time: How Ophiocordyceps fungi could be using ant host clocks to manipulate behavior

Bekker

Das

2022

Parasite Immunology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

s Ophiocordyceps fungi manipulate ant behaviour as a transmission strategy. Conspicuous changes in the daily timing of disease phenotypes suggest that Ophiocordyceps and other manipulators could be hijacking the host clock. We discuss the available data that support the notion that Ophiocordyceps fungi could be hijacking ant host clocks and consider how altering daily behavioural rhythms could benefit the fungal infection cycle. By reviewing time‐course transcriptomics data for the parasite and the host, we argue that Ophiocordyceps has a light‐entrainable clock that might drive daily expression of candidate manipulation genes. Moreover, ant rhythms are seemingly highly plastic and involved in behavioural division of labour, which could make them susceptible to parasite hijacking. To provisionally test whether the expression of ant behavioural plasticity and rhythmicity genes could be affected by fungal manipulation, we performed a gene co‐expression network analysis on ant time‐course data and linked it to available behavioural manipulation data. We found that behavioural plasticity genes reside in the same modules as those affected during fungal manipulation. These modules showed significant connectivity with rhythmic gene modules, suggesting that Ophiocordyceps could be indirectly affecting the expression of those genes as well.

show abstract

“…Samples of dead, Ophiocordyceps ‐infected ants have been collected from tropical and temperate forests all over the globe 50‐55 …”

Section: Current Evidence For the Hijacking Of Ant Behavioural Rhythm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Evidence For the Hijacking Of Ant Behavioural Rhythm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Evidence For the Hijacking Of Ant Behavioural Rhythm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Hijacking time: How Ophiocordyceps fungi could be using ant host clocks to manipulate behavior

Bekker

Das

2022

Parasite Immunology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Prior to assembling the two hyperparasite genomes, we ltered and trimmed our raw sequence data using the BBDuk plugin in Geneious Prime (20.2.3) with default parameters. Subsequently, to con rm the quality of these trimmed reads, we used fastQC (Andrews 2010). We then assembled the genomes de novo using the SPAdes assembly algorithm (Bankevich et al 2012) and con rmed the quality of the assemblies through QUAST (Gurevich et al 2013).…”

Section: Genome Assembly and Gene Predictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masters of the Manipulator? A Comparative Genomics Study of Niveomyces gen. nov. and Two New Species of Mycoparasites Associated with Ophiocordyceps Camponoti-Floridani

Lebert

Araújo

Linehan

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fungal hyperparasites can impact ecosystem composition and disease dynamics by modulating their parasite hosts’ population size and transmission rate. Despite their perceived ecosystem impacts and potential to be applied in disease control efforts, hyperparasites are vastly understudied. In this integrative study we formally describe a new genus and two new mycoparasite species that infect the fungus Ophiocordyceps camponoti-floridani, which manipulates the behavior of Florida carpenter ants. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that both fungal hyperparasites are distinct species within the families Cordycipitaceae and Ophiocordycipitaceae. The unique morphology, ecology and phylogenetic placement of the Cordycipitaceae species supports its placement in a new genus, Niveomyces. Our field data alludes that both new species, Niveomyces ophiocordycipitis and Polycephalomyces oviedoensis, negatively impact O. camponoti-floridani survival and transmission. Moreover, their macromorphology, along with our field data, suggest that these hyperparasites live an exclusively mycoparasitic lifestyle and do not infect, nor decompose O. camponoti-floridani’s ant host. To find genome signatures that would further confirm their mycoparasitism, we sequenced and annotated both species’ genomes. We then compared the N. ophiocordycipitis and P. oviedoensis genomes to those of other mycoparasites, animal parasites, plant parasites, and saprophytes within the order Hypocreales and searched for previously reported mycoparasite genome signatures. However, our analyses indicate that these signatures are not greatly informative when expanding the number of genomes and lifestyles beyond those of previous studies, using the genome data that is currently available. This highlights the need for additional mycoparasite genomes within the order Hypocreales, as well as data on more closely related animal parasites. As such, this work contributes a starting point for more studies into fungal interactions between mycoparasites and entomopathogens, which have the potential to contribute important knowledge towards efforts to battle the global rise of plant and animal mycoses.

show abstract

“…In 2019, scientists determined 48 new species of animal-associated Sordariomycetes , including eight species of Ophiocordyceps , one of the best-known entomopathogenic genera ( Cheek et al 2020 ). The following year, 12 new species of Ophiocordyceps were described ( Araujo et al 2020 , Tasanathai et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ophiocordyceps aphrophoridarum sp. nov., a new entomopathogenic species from Guizhou, China

Yang¹,

Xiao²,

Yu³

et al. 2021

BDJ

558

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ophiocordyceps is the largest genus in the family Ophiocordicipitaceae, including many entomopathogenic species. In recent years, many species have been described in this genus, with a wide range of host insects. Entomopathogenic fungi include ecologically, economically and medicinally important species, but a large portion of their diversity remains to be discovered and described. In this study, a new species, Ophiocordyceps aphrophoridarum sp. nov, parasitising Aphrophoridae sp. (Hemiptera) is proposed from China, based on evidence from morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses. This species is characterised by fibrous, pigmented stromata, cylindrical asci and filiform ascospores. Compared to its closest relative, O. tricentri, the new species has wider perithecia and longer asci. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of a multilocus dataset (consisting of SSU, ITS, LSU, TEF1, RPB1 and RPB2) confirm its placement in Ophiocordyceps. Ophiocordyceps aphrophoridarum is morphologically described and illustrated with colour photographs. Morphological comparisons with closely-related species are also presented in tabulated format.

show abstract

Zombie-ant fungi cross continents: II. Myrmecophilous hymenostilboid species and a novel zombie lineage

Cited by 26 publications

References 49 publications

Hijacking time: How Ophiocordyceps fungi could be using ant host clocks to manipulate behavior

Hijacking time: How Ophiocordyceps fungi could be using ant host clocks to manipulate behavior

Masters of the Manipulator? A Comparative Genomics Study of Niveomyces gen. nov. and Two New Species of Mycoparasites Associated with Ophiocordyceps Camponoti-Floridani

Ophiocordyceps aphrophoridarum sp. nov., a new entomopathogenic species from Guizhou, China

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About