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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.)

Chemical Gradients of Plant Substrates in an Atta texana Fungus Garden

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Author(s):
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Caraballo-Rodriguez, Andres Mauricio [1] ; Puckett, Sara P. [2] ; Kyle, Kathleen E. [3] ; Petras, Daniel [4, 1, 5] ; da Silva, Ricardo [6] ; Nothias, Louis-Felix [1] ; Ernst, Madeleine [7] ; van der Hooft, Justin J. J. [8] ; Tripathi, Anupriya [9, 1, 10] ; Wang, Mingxun [1] ; Balunas, Marcy J. [2] ; Klassen, Jonathan L. [3] ; Dorrestein, Pieter C. [1]
Total Authors: 13
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Calif San Diego, Collaborat Mass Spectrometry Innovat Ctr, Skaggs Sch Pharm & Pharmaceut Sci, La Jolla, CA 92093 - USA
[2] Univ Connecticut, Dept Pharmaceut Sci, Div Med Chem, Storrs, CT - USA
[3] Univ Connecticut, Dept Mol & Cell Biol, Storrs, CT 06269 - USA
[4] Univ Calif San Diego, Scripps Inst Oceanog, La Jolla, CA 92093 - USA
[5] Univ Tubingen, Interfac Inst Microbiol & Med, CMFI Cluster Excellence, Tubingen - Germany
[6] Univ Sao Paulo, Sch Pharmaceut Sci Ribeirao Preto, Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil
[7] Statens Serum Inst, Danish Ctr Neonatal Screening, Dept Congenital Disorders, Sect Clin Mass Spectrometry, Copenhagen - Denmark
[8] Wageningen Univ, Bioinformat Grp, Wageningen - Netherlands
[9] Univ Calif San Diego, Div Biol Sci, La Jolla, CA 92093 - USA
[10] Univ Calif San Diego, Dept Pediat, La Jolla, CA 92093 - USA
Total Affiliations: 10
Document type: Journal article
Source: MSYSTEMS; v. 6, n. 4 AUG 2021.
Web of Science Citations: 0
Abstract

Many ant species grow fungus gardens that predigest food as an essen-tial step of the ants' nutrient uptake. These symbiotic fungus gardens have long been studied and feature a gradient of increasing substrate degradation from top to bottom. To further facilitate the study of fungus gardens and enable the understand-ing of the predigestion process in more detail than currently known, we applied recent mass spectrometry-based approaches and generated a three-dimensional (3D) molecular map of an Atta texana fungus garden to reveal chemical modifications as plant substrates pass through it. The metabolomics approach presented in this study can be applied to study similar processes in natural environments to compare with lab-maintained ecosystems. IMPORTANCE The study of complex ecosystems requires an understanding of the chemical processes involving molecules from several sources. Some of the molecules present in fungus-growing ants' symbiotic system originate from plants. To facilitate the study of fungus gardens from a chemical perspective, we provide a molecular map of an Atta texana fungus garden to reveal chemical modifications as plant sub-strates pass through it. The metabolomics approach presented in this study can be applied to study similar processes in natural environments. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 17/18922-2 - Development of a computing platform extensible and modular for metabolomics and metagenomics analysis: innovation with the discovery of new enzymatic activities and natural products of pharmaceutical interest derived
Grantee:Ricardo Roberto da Silva
Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Young Investigators Grants
FAPESP's process: 19/05026-4 - Development of a computational platform extensible and modular for analysis of metabolomics and metagenomics experiments: Innovating with the discovery of new enzymatic activities and derived natural products of interest
Grantee:Ricardo Roberto da Silva
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - BIOTA - Young Researchers