Leaf endophyte load influences fungal garden development in leaf-cutting ants
نویسندگان
چکیده
منابع مشابه
Fungal endophyte effects on leaf chemistry alter the invitro growth rates of leaf-cutting ants' fungal mutualist, Leucocoprinus gongylophorus
Fungal symbionts that colonize leaf tissue asymptomatically (endophytes) can alter the foraging behaviour of leaf-cutting ants, and decrease the productivity of this herbivore’s mutualistic fungal cultivar, Leucocoprinus gongylophorus. This negative effect of endophytes on the ant’s cultivar could be the result of direct fungalefungal interaction or indirect reductions in the quality of leaves,...
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BACKGROUND Symbiotic relationships modulate the evolution of living organisms in all levels of biological organization. A notable example of symbiosis is that of attine ants (Attini; Formicidae: Hymenoptera) and their fungal cultivars (Lepiotaceae and Pterulaceae; Agaricales: Basidiomycota). In recent years, this mutualism has emerged as a model system for studying coevolution, speciation, and ...
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Social insects have evolved a suite of sophisticated defences against parasites. In addition to the individual physiological immune response, social insects also express 'social immunity' consisting of group-level defences and behaviours that include allogrooming. Here we investigate whether the social immune response of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior reacts adaptively to the virule...
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Plants host a vast diversity of fungal symbionts inside their tissues that live in close proximity with each other to form rich and dynamic communities. Although endophytes can affect plant–herbivore interactions in several ways, it is still not known to what extent such effects are influenced by the properties of endophyte communities or by particular species traits. Here we compared the effec...
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Kacelnikl proposes a puzzle for optimal foraging theorists, arising from experiments of Races and Nutiez2, who found that leaf-cutting ant (Acromyrmex lundi) workers changed their behavior in response to foragmg-quality information that was only known to scouts. The workers cut and transferred smaller pieces of parafilm when the scouts had been exposed to a 10% sugar solution than when they wer...
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ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: BMC Ecology
سال: 2012
ISSN: 1472-6785
DOI: 10.1186/1472-6785-12-23