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Journal article
Herbivorous turtle ants obtain essential nutrients from a conserved nitrogen-recycling gut microbiome
Nature communications, v 9(1), pp 964-14
06 Mar 2018
PMCID: PMC5840417
PMID: 29511180
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Nitrogen acquisition is a major challenge for herbivorous animals, and the repeated origins of herbivory across the ants have raised expectations that nutritional symbionts have shaped their diversification. Direct evidence for N provisioning by internally housed symbionts is rare in animals; among the ants, it has been documented for just one lineage. In this study we dissect functional contributions by bacteria from a conserved, multi-partite gut symbiosis in herbivorous Cephalotes ants through in vivo experiments, metagenomics, and in vitro assays. Gut bacteria recycle urea, and likely uric acid, using recycled N to synthesize essential amino acids that are acquired by hosts in substantial quantities. Specialized core symbionts of 17 studied Cephalotes species encode the pathways directing these activities, and several recycle N in vitro. These findings point to a highly efficient N economy, and a nutritional mutualism preserved for millions of years through the derived behaviors and gut anatomy of Cephalotes ants.
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Details
- Title
- Herbivorous turtle ants obtain essential nutrients from a conserved nitrogen-recycling gut microbiome
- Creators
- Yi Hu - Drexel UniversityJon G Sanders - Harvard UniversityPiotr Łukasik - Drexel UniversityCatherine L D'Amelio - Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USAJohn S Millar - University of PennsylvaniaDavid R Vann - University of PennsylvaniaYemin Lan - Drexel UniversityJustin A Newton - Drexel UniversityMark Schotanus - Calvin UniversityDaniel J C Kronauer - Rockefeller UniversityNaomi E Pierce - Harvard UniversityCorrie S Moreau - Field Museum of Natural HistoryJohn T Wertz - Calvin UniversityPhilipp Engel - University of LausanneJacob A Russell - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Nature communications, v 9(1), pp 964-14
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000426659300010
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85043293039
- Other Identifier
- 991019168437304721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Ecology