Department of General and Applied Biology, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Bela Vista, Avenida 24-A, n. 1515SP 13.506-900, Rio Claro, Brazil.
Center for the Study of Social Insects, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Rio Claro, SP, Brazil.
Microb Ecol. 2023 Jul;86(1):624-635. doi: 10.1007/s00248-022-02099-1. Epub 2022 Aug 12.
Yeast-insect interactions are compelling models to study the evolution, ecology, and diversification of yeasts. Fungus-growing (attine) ants are prominent insects in the Neotropics that evolved an ancient fungiculture of basidiomycete fungi over 55-65 million years, supplying an environment for a hidden yeast diversity. Here we assessed the yeast diversity in the attine ant environment by thoroughly sampling fungus gardens across four out of five ant fungiculture systems: Acromyrmex coronatus and Mycetomoellerius tucumanus standing for leaf-cutting and higher-attine fungicultures, respectively; Apterostigma sp., Mycetophylax sp., and Mycocepurus goeldii as ants from the lower-attine fungiculture. Among the fungus gardens of all fungus-growing ants examined, we found taxonomically unique and diverse microbial yeast communities across the different fungicultures. Ascomycete yeasts were the core taxa in fungus garden samples, with Saccharomycetales as the most frequent order. The genera Aureobasidium, Candida, Papiliotrema, Starmerella, and Sugiyamaella had the highest incidence in fungus gardens. Despite the expected similarity within the same fungiculture system, colonies of the same ant species differed in community structure. Among Saccharomycotina yeasts, few were distinguishable as killer yeasts, with a classical inhibition pattern for the killer phenotype, differing from earlier observations in this environment, which should be further investigated. Yeast mycobiome in fungus gardens is distinct between colonies of the same fungiculture and each ant colony harbors a distinguished and unique yeast community. Fungus gardens of attine ants are emergent environments to study the diversity and ecology of yeasts associated with insects.
酵母-昆虫相互作用是研究酵母进化、生态学和多样化的引人入胜的模型。菌食性（切叶蚁）蚂蚁是新热带地区的突出昆虫，它们在 5500 万至 6500 万年前进化出了古老的担子菌真菌的真菌培养，为隐藏的酵母多样性提供了环境。在这里，我们通过彻底采样四个菌蚁真菌培养系统中的五个菌蚁真菌花园来评估蚁环境中的酵母多样性：Acromyrmex coronatus 和 Mycetomoellerius tucumanus 分别代表切叶蚁和高等菌蚁真菌培养；Apterostigma sp.、Mycetophylax sp. 和 Mycocepurus goeldii 作为低级菌蚁真菌培养的蚂蚁。在所检查的所有菌蚁真菌花园中，我们发现了不同菌蚁真菌培养中具有分类学独特性和多样性的微生物酵母群落。子囊菌酵母是菌蚁真菌花园样本中的核心类群，以 Saccharomycetales 为最常见的目。属 Aureobasidium、Candida、Papiliotrema、Starmerella 和 Sugiyamaella 在菌蚁真菌花园中发病率最高。尽管在同一菌蚁真菌培养系统中预期相似，但同一蚁种的蚁群在群落结构上存在差异。在 Saccharomycotina 酵母中，很少有可以被识别为杀伤酵母的，具有经典的杀伤表型抑制模式，与该环境中的早期观察结果不同，这应该进一步研究。菌蚁真菌花园中的酵母菌丛在同一菌蚁真菌培养的蚁群之间是不同的，每个蚁群都拥有独特的酵母群落。菌蚁真菌花园是研究与昆虫相关的酵母多样性和生态学的新兴环境。
