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(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

The Most Relictual Fungus-Farming Ant Species Cultivates the Most Recently Evolved and Highly Domesticated Fungal Symbiont Species

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Author(s):
Schultz, Ted R. [1] ; Sosa-Calvo, Jeffrey [1, 2] ; Brady, Sean G. [1] ; Lopes, Caue T. [3] ; Mueller, Ulrich G. [4] ; Bacci, Jr., Mauricio [5] ; Vasconcelos, Heraldo L. [3]
Total Authors: 7
Affiliation:
[1] Smithsonian Inst, Dept Entomol, Natl Museum Nat Hist, Washington, DC 20560 - USA
[2] Univ Maryland, Dept Entomol, Maryland Ctr Systemat Entomol, College Pk, MD 20742 - USA
[3] Univ Fed Uberlandia, Inst Biol, BR-38405320 Uberlandia, MG - Brazil
[4] Univ Texas Austin, Dept Integrat Biol, Austin, TX 78712 - USA
[5] Univ Estadual Paulista, Ctr Estudos Insetos Sociais, BR-13506900 Sao Paulo - Brazil
Total Affiliations: 5
Document type: Journal article
Source: American Naturalist; v. 185, n. 5, p. 693-703, MAY 2015.
Web of Science Citations: 21
Abstract

Fungus-farming (attine) ant agriculture is made up of five known agricultural systems characterized by remarkable symbiont fidelity in which five phylogenetic groups of ants faithfully cultivate five phylogenetic groups of fungi. Here we describe the first case of a lower-attine ant cultivating a higher-attine fungus based on our discovery of a Brazilian population of the relictual fungus-farming ant Apterostigma megacephala, known previously from four stray specimens from Peru and Colombia. We find that A. megacephala is the sole surviving representative of an ancient lineage that diverged similar to 39 million years ago, very early in the similar to 55-million-year evolution of fungus-farming ants. Contrary to all previously known patterns of ant-fungus symbiont fidelity, A. megacephala cultivates Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, a highly domesticated fungal cultivar that originated only 2-8 million years ago in the gardens of the highly derived and recently evolved (similar to 12 million years ago) leaf-cutting ants. Because no other lower fungus-farming ant is known to cultivate any of the higher-attine fungi, let alone the leaf-cutter fungus, A. megacephala may provide important clues about the biological mechanisms constraining the otherwise seemingly obligate ant-fungus associations that characterize attine ant agriculture. (AU)