Department of General Biology, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil.
Department of Entomology, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil.
Microsc Microanal. 2020 Dec;26(6):1236-1244. doi: 10.1017/S1431927620024484.
The carpenter ant Camponotus rufipes has intracellular bacteria in bacteriocytes scattered in the midgut epithelium, which have different amounts of endosymbionts, according to the developmental stages. However, there are no detailed data about the midgut cells in adult workers. The present work aimed to evaluate the morphology and cellular events that coordinate the abundance of endosymbionts in the midgut cells in C. rufipes workers. The midgut epithelium has digestive cells, bacteriocytes, and cells with intermediate morphology. The latter is similar to bacteriocytes, due to the abundance of endosymbionts, and similar to digestive cells, due to their microvilli. The digestive and intermediate cells are rich in autophagosomes and autolysosomes, both with bacteria debris in the lumen. These findings suggest that midgut cells of C. rufipes control the endosymbiont level by the autophagy pathway.
红足穴猛蚁的中肠上皮细胞中散布着具有不同数量内共生菌的细菌细胞，这些内共生菌的数量与发育阶段有关。然而，关于成年工蚁的中肠细胞还没有详细的数据。本研究旨在评估协调红足穴猛蚁工蚁中肠细胞内共生菌丰度的形态和细胞事件。中肠上皮细胞有消化细胞、细菌细胞和具有中间形态的细胞。后者由于内共生菌的丰富而类似于细菌细胞，由于微绒毛的存在而类似于消化细胞。消化细胞和中间细胞富含自噬体和自溶体，两者的腔中都有细菌残骸。这些发现表明，红足穴猛蚁的中肠细胞通过自噬途径来控制内共生菌的水平。
