Antimicrobial defense shows an abrupt evolutionary transition in the fungus-growing ants.

Détails

ID Serval
serval:BIB_E6D6FCFB7CB1
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Titre
Antimicrobial defense shows an abrupt evolutionary transition in the fungus-growing ants.
Périodique
Evolution
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Hughes W.O., Pagliarini R., Madsen H.B., Dijkstra M.B., Boomsma J.J.
ISSN
0014-3820 (Print)
ISSN-L
0014-3820
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2008
Volume
62
Numéro
5
Pages
1252-1257
Langue
anglais
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Résumé
Understanding the relative evolutionary importance of parasites to different host taxa is problematic because the expression of disease and resistance are often confounded by factors such as host age and condition. The antibiotic-producing metapleural glands of ants are a potentially useful exception to this rule because they are a key first-line defense that are fixed in size in adults. Here we conduct a comparative analysis of the size of the gland reservoir across the fungus-growing ants (tribe Attini). Most attines have singly mated queens, but in two derived genera, the leaf-cutting ants, the queens are multiply mated, which is hypothesized to have evolved to improve colony-level disease resistance. We found that, relative to body size, the gland reservoirs of most attines are similar in size but that those of the leaf-cutting ants are significantly larger. In contrast, the size of the reservoir did not relate with the evolutionary transition from lower to higher attines and correlated at most only slightly with colony size. The results thus suggest that the relationship between leaf-cutting ants and their parasites is distinctly different from that for other attine ants, in accord with the hypothesis that multiple mating by queens evolved to improve colony-level disease resistance.
Mots-clé
Animals, Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides/metabolism, Ants/anatomy & histology, Ants/classification, Biological Evolution, Fungi/growth & development, Host-Parasite Interactions, Phylogeny
Pubmed
Création de la notice
28/02/2008 14:30
Dernière modification de la notice
20/08/2019 17:09
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