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Edited by Bert Hölldobler, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, and approved December 4, 2007 (received for review September 6, 2007)
Abstract
Mutualism, whereby species interact to their mutual benefit, is extraordinary in a competitive world. To recognize general patterns of origin and maintenance from the plethora of mutualistic associations proves a persisting challenge. The simplest situation is believed to be that of a single mutualist specific to a single host, vertically transmitted from one host generation to the next. We characterized ascomycete fungal associates cultured for nest architecture by the ant subgenera Dendrolasius and Chthonolasius. The ants probably manage their fungal mutualists by protecting them against fungal competitors. The ant subgenera display different ant-to-fungus specificity patterns, one-to-two and many-to-one, and we infer vertical transmission, in the latter case overlaid by horizontal transmission. Possible evolutionary trajectories include a reversal from fungiculture by other Lasius subgenera and inheritance of fungi through life cycle interactions of the ant subgenera. The mosaic indicates how specificity patterns can be shaped by an interplay between host life-cycles and transmission adaptations.
Footnotes
- **To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ross.crozier{at}jcu.edu.au
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Author contributions: B.C.S.-S. and F.M.S. contributed equally to this work; B.C.S.-S., F.M.S., H.K., E.C., and C.S. designed research; B.C.S.-S., F.M.S., H.K., and B.S. performed research; B.C.S.-S., F.M.S., H.K., B.S., K.M., and R.H.C. analyzed data; and B.C.S.-S., F.M.S., E.C., C.S., and R.H.C. wrote the paper.
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↵ §Present address: Department of Genetics, Federal Research and Training Center for Forests, Natural Hazards, and Landscape, 1140 Vienna, Austria.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. EF191418–EF191441).
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0708320105/DC1.
- © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
Specificity and transmission mosaic of ant nest-wall fungi
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