Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Coordenação de Ciências da Terra e Ecologia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi 66077-830, PA, Brazil.
Toxins (Basel). 2020 Oct 29;12(11):679. doi: 10.3390/toxins12110679.
Alkaloids are important metabolites found across a variety of organisms with diverse ecological functions. Of particular interest are alkaloids found in ants, organisms well known for dominating the ecosystems they dwell in. Within ants, alkaloids are found in venom and function as potent weapons against heterospecific species. However, research is often limited to pest species or species with parasitic lifestyles and thus fails to address the broader ecological function of ant venom alkaloids. Here we describe a new species of free-living ant: sp. n. In addition, we identify its singular venom alkaloid (-2-butyl-5-heptylpyrrolidine) and elucidate the antibiotic and insecticidal functions of its venom. Our results show that sp. n. venom is an effective antibiotic and insecticide. These results are comparable to venom alkaloids found in other ant species, such as This research provides great insight into venom alkaloid function, and it is the first study to explore these ideas in the system.
生物碱是在具有不同生态功能的各种生物体中发现的重要代谢物。特别有趣的是在蚂蚁中发现的生物碱，这些生物体以主宰它们栖息的生态系统而闻名。在蚂蚁中，生物碱存在于毒液中，是对抗异质物种的强大武器。然而，研究往往仅限于害虫物种或具有寄生生活方式的物种，因此未能解决蚂蚁毒液生物碱更广泛的生态功能。在这里，我们描述了一种新的自由生活的蚂蚁： sp. n. 此外，我们确定了它独特的毒液生物碱（-2-丁基-5-庚基吡咯烷），并阐明了其毒液的抗生素和杀虫功能。我们的结果表明， sp. n. 毒液是一种有效的抗生素和杀虫剂。这些结果与其他蚂蚁物种（如 ）中发现的毒液生物碱相当。这项研究深入了解了毒液生物碱的功能，这也是首次在 系统中探索这些想法的研究。
