Journal article
Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 106(50), pp 21236-21241
15 Dec 2009
PMID: 19948964
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
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.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants
- Creators
- Jacob A Russell - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138Corrie S Moreau - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138Benjamin Goldman-Huertas - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138Mikiko Fujiwara - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138David J Lohman - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138Naomi E Pierce - Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 106(50), pp 21236-21241
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000272795300042
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-75849149470
- Other Identifier
- 991014877796004721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Evolutionary Biology