Zani Renata de Oliveira Aquino, Ferro Milene, Bacci Maurício
Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais (CEIS) Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Rio Claro - SP Brazil.
Departamento de Biologia Geral e Aplicada Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) Rio Claro - SP Brazil.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Dec 14;11(24):17686-17699. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8213. eCollection 2021 Dec.
The obligate mutualistic basidiomycete fungus, , mediates nutrition of leaf-cutting ants with carbons from vegetal matter. In addition, diazotrophic Enterobacteriales in the fungus garden and intestinal Rhizobiales supposedly mediate assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen, and Entomoplasmatales in the genus , as well as other yet unidentified strains, supposedly mediate ant assimilation of other compounds from vegetal matter, such as citrate, fructose, and amino acids. Together, these nutritional partners would support the production of high yields of leafcutter biomass. In the present investigation, we propose that three phylogenetically distinct and culturable diazotrophs in the genera , and integrate this symbiotic nutrition network, facilitating ant nutrition on nitrogen. Strains in these genera were often isolated and directly sequenced in 16S rRNA libraries from the ant abdomen, together with the nondiazotrophs and . These five isolates were underrepresented in libraries, suggesting that none of them is dominant . Libraries have been dominated by four uncultured Rhizobiales strains in the genera , and and, only in ants, by the Entomoplasmatales in the genus . also presented small amounts of two other uncultured Entomoplasmatales strains, and . The absence of Entomoplasmatales in workers implicates that the association with these bacteria is not mandatory for ant biomass production. Most of the strains that we detected in South American ants were genetically similar with strains previously described in association with leafcutters from Central and North America, indicating wide geographic dispersion, and suggesting fixed ecological services.
专性互利担子菌真菌——，通过植物物质中的碳为切叶蚁提供营养。此外，菌圃中的固氮肠杆菌目细菌和肠道中的根瘤菌目细菌据推测介导大气氮的同化，而属中的昆虫支原体目细菌以及其他尚未鉴定的菌株据推测介导蚂蚁对植物物质中其他化合物（如柠檬酸盐、果糖和氨基酸）的同化。这些营养伙伴共同支持切叶蚁生物量的高产。在本研究中，我们提出，属、属和属中的三种系统发育上不同且可培养的固氮菌整合了这个共生营养网络，促进蚂蚁对氮的营养摄取。这些属中的菌株经常在来自蚂蚁腹部的16S rRNA文库中被分离并直接测序，同时还有非固氮菌和。这五种分离菌株在文库中的代表性不足，表明它们都不占主导地位。文库中占主导地位的是属、属和属中的四种未培养的根瘤菌目菌株，并且仅在蚂蚁中，是属中的昆虫支原体目细菌占主导。也呈现出少量其他两种未培养的昆虫支原体目菌株和。工蚁中不存在昆虫支原体目细菌意味着与这些细菌的关联对于蚂蚁生物量的产生不是必需的。我们在南美蚂蚁中检测到的大多数菌株在基因上与先前描述的与中美洲和北美洲切叶蚁相关的菌株相似，这表明其地理分布广泛，并暗示了固定的生态功能。
