Wood ants produce a potent antimicrobial agent by applying formic acid on tree-collected resin.
Détails
Etat: Public
Version: Final published version
ID Serval
serval:BIB_810104B0E08F
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Titre
Wood ants produce a potent antimicrobial agent by applying formic acid on tree-collected resin.
Périodique
Ecology and Evolution
ISSN-L
2045-7758
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
7
Numéro
7
Pages
2249-2254
Langue
anglais
Résumé
Wood ants fight pathogens by incorporating tree resin with antimicrobial properties into their nests. They also produce large quantities of formic acid in their venom gland, which they readily spray to defend or disinfect their nest. Mixing chemicals to produce powerful antibiotics is common practice in human medicine, yet evidence for the use of such "defensive cocktails" by animals remains scant. Here, we test the hypothesis that wood ants enhance the antifungal activity of tree resin by treating it with formic acid. In a series of experiments, we document that (i) tree resin had much higher inhibitory activity against the common entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium brunneum after having been in contact with ants, while no such effect was detected for other nest materials; (ii) wood ants applied significant amounts of endogenous formic and succinic acid on resin and other nest materials; and (iii) the application of synthetic formic acid greatly increased the antifungal activity of resin, but had no such effect when applied to inert glass material. Together, these results demonstrate that wood ants obtain an effective protection against a detrimental microorganism by mixing endogenous and plant-acquired chemical defenses. In conclusion, the ability to synergistically combine antimicrobial substances of diverse origins is not restricted to humans and may play an important role in insect societies.
Mots-clé
antimicrobials, ants, chemical defenses, formic acid, Formica, fungal pathogen, social insects, tree resin
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Oui
Création de la notice
28/04/2017 9:49
Dernière modification de la notice
20/08/2019 15:41