Laboratório de Interações em Insetos, Departamento de Entomologia & Acarologia, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de São Paulo, ESALQ/USP, Av. Pádua Dias, 11, CP 9, 13418-900 Piracicaba, SP, Brasil.
Microbiol Res. 2011 Jan 20;166(1):68-76. doi: 10.1016/j.micres.2010.01.009. Epub 2010 Feb 19.
The ectosymbiont actinobacterium Pseudonocardia was isolated from the integument of Acromyrmex leaf-cutter ants and seems to play a crucial role in maintaining asepsis of the nest. Currently, there has been an intensive search for Pseudonocardia associated with several attine species, but few studies have indicated that other actinobacteria may be associated with these ants as well. We therefore characterized the culturable actinobacteria community associated with the integument of the fungus-growing ant Acromyrmex subterraneus brunneus Forel, 1893 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Ectosymbionts were isolated using four different media and characterized by morphological and molecular (16S rDNA) methods. A total of 20 strains were isolated, of which 17 were characterized as Streptomyces spp., and one isolate each as Pseudonocardia, Kitassatospora and Propionicimonas. Unlike other Acromyrmex species, A. subterraneus brunneus is associated with a diversity of actinobacteria. Even though Pseudonocardia is present on this leaf-cutting ant's integument, the number and diversity of Streptomyces spp. found differs from those of previous studies with other attine ants and suggest that different culturing approaches are needed to characterize the true diversity of microbes colonizing the integument of attine ants. Moreover, understanding the diversity of the culturable actinobacteria associated with A. subterraneus brunneus should increase our knowledge of the evolutionary relationship of this intricate symbiotic association.
共生放线菌假诺卡氏菌从切叶蚁的外骨骼中分离出来，似乎在维持蚁巢无菌状态方面起着至关重要的作用。目前，人们已经对与几种织叶蚁相关的假诺卡氏菌进行了密集的搜索，但很少有研究表明其他放线菌也可能与这些蚂蚁有关。因此，我们对与真菌种植蚁（Acromyrmex subterraneus brunneus Forel，1893）（膜翅目：蚁科）外骨骼相关的可培养放线菌群落进行了特征描述。使用四种不同的培养基分离外共生体，并通过形态学和分子（16S rDNA）方法进行鉴定。共分离出 20 株菌株，其中 17 株被鉴定为链霉菌属，1 株为假诺卡氏菌属，1 株为 Kitassatospora 属，1 株为丙酸杆菌属。与其他的切叶蚁不同，A. subterraneus brunneus 与多种放线菌有关。尽管在这种切叶蚁的外骨骼上存在假诺卡氏菌，但发现的链霉菌属的数量和多样性与以前对其他织叶蚁的研究不同，这表明需要采用不同的培养方法来描述栖息在织叶蚁外骨骼上的微生物的真实多样性。此外，了解与 A. subterraneus brunneus 相关的可培养放线菌的多样性，应该会增加我们对这种复杂共生关系进化关系的了解。
