the evolutionary innovation of nutritional symbioses in leaf-cutter ants营养的进化创新的共生,在leaf-cutter蚂蚁.pdfVIP

Insects 2012, 3, 41-61; doi:10.3390/insects3010041 OPEN ACCESS insects ISSN 2075-4450 /journal/insects/ Review The Evolutionary Innovation of Nutritional Symbioses in Leaf-Cutter Ants Frank O. Aylward 1,2, Cameron R. Currie 1,2 and Garret Suen 1,* 1 Department of Bacteriology, Microbial Sciences Building, 1550 Linden Drive, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA; E-Mails: faylward@ (F.O.A.); currie@ (C.R.C.) 2 Department of Energy Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, 1550 Linden Drive, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: E-Mail: gsuen@; Tel.: +1-608-890-3972; Fax: +1-608-262-9865. Received: 3 December 2011; in revised form: 16 December 2011 / Accepted: 20 December 2011 / Published: 6 January 2012 Abstract: Fungus-growing ants gain access to nutrients stored in plant biomass through their association with a mutualistic fungus they grow for food. This 50 million-year-old obligate mutualism likely facilitated some of these species becoming dominant Neotropical herbivores that can achieve immense colony sizes. Recent culture-independent investigations have shed light on the conversion of plant biomass into nutrients within ant fungus gardens, revealing that this process involves both the fungal cultivar and a symbiotic community of bacteria including Enterobacter, Klebsiella, and Pantoea species. Moreover, the genome sequences of the leaf-cutter ants Atta cephalotes and Acromyrm