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Published online on January 22, 2008, 10.1073/pnas.0708643105
PNAS | March 25, 2008 | vol. 105 | no. 12 | 4571-4575


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Chemical Ecology Special Feature
CHEMICAL ECOLOGY SPECIAL FEATURE / BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / RESEARCH ARTICLES / ECOLOGY
Seed odor mediates an obligate ant–plant mutualism in Amazonian rainforests

Elsa Youngsteadt*, Satoshi Nojima*, Christopher Häberlein{dagger}, Stefan Schulz{dagger}, and Coby Schal*,{ddagger}

*Department of Entomology and W.M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology, North Carolina State University, Box 7613, Raleigh, NC 27695; and {dagger}Institut für Organische Chemie, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Hagenring 30, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

Edited by Thomas Eisner, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and approved November 30, 2007 (received for review September 11, 2007)

Seed dispersal mutualisms are essential for the survival of diverse plant species and communities worldwide. Among invertebrates, only ants have a major role in seed dispersal, and thousands of plant species produce seeds specialized for ant dispersal in "diffuse" multispecies interactions. An outstanding but poorly understood ant–seed mutualism occurs in the Amazonian rainforest, where arboreal ants collect seeds of several epiphyte species and cultivate them in nutrient-rich nests, forming abundant and conspicuous hanging gardens known as ant-gardens (AGs). AG ants and plants are dominant members of lowland Amazonian ecosystems, and their interaction is both specific and obligate, but the means by which ants locate, recognize, and accept their mutualist seeds while rejecting other seeds is unknown. Here we address the chemical and behavioral basis of the AG interaction. We show that workers of the AG ant Camponotus femoratus are attracted to odorants emanating from seeds of the AG plant Peperomia macrostachya, and that chemical cues also elicit seed-carrying behavior. We identify five compounds from P. macrostachya seeds that, as a blend, attract C. femoratus workers. This report of attractive odorants from ant-dispersed seeds illustrates the intimacy and complexity of the AG mutualism and begins to illuminate the chemical basis of this important and enigmatic interaction.

seed dispersal | ant-garden | myrmecochory | Camponotus femoratus | Peperomia macrostachya

Author contributions: E.Y. and C.S. designed research; E.Y., S.N., C.H., and S.S. performed research; E.Y. analyzed data; and E.Y. and C.S. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

{ddagger}To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: coby_schal{at}ncsu.edu

© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA


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Chemical Ecology Special Feature: Chemical ecology in retrospect and prospect
PNAS, March 25, 2008; 105(12): 4539 - 4540.
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