Project description:Leaf-cutting ants of the genera Acromyrmex and Atta live in mutualistic symbiosis with a basidiomycete fungus (Leucocoprinus gongylophorus), which they cultivate as fungal gardens in underground nest chambers. The ants provide the fungus with a growth substrate consisting of freshly cut leaf fragments. After new leaf fragments are brought into the nest, the ants chew them into smaller pieces and apply droplets of fecal fluid to the leaf pulp before depositing this mixed substrate in the fungus garden and inoculating it with small tufts of mycelium from older parts of the garden. Previous work has shown that the fecal fluid contains a range of digestive enzymes including proteases, amylases, chitinases, cellulases, pectinases, hemicellulases and laccases, and that most of these enzymes are produced by the fungal symbiont in specialized structures called gongylidia that the ants eat. After ingestion, the enzymes apparently pass unharmed through the alimentary channel of the ants and end up in the fecal fluid. Most likely this complex system is an adaptation of the ant-fungus symbiosis to a herbivorous lifestyle, as the ancient ancestors of the ants and the fungus lived as hunter-gatherers and saprotrophs, respectively. The promise of fecal fluid for getting insight into the molecular adaptations that enables the ant-fungus holosymbiont to live as a herbivore, led us to investigate the fecal fluid proteome using LC-MS/MS in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the repertoire of proteins present.
2021-01-12 | PXD016395 | Pride
Project description:Symbiotic bacterial communities of fungus-farming ants
| PRJNA575362 | ENA
Project description:Genome sequencing of Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, the fungal symbiont of attine ants (fungus-farming leaf cutter ants).
Project description:Leaf-cutter ants use fresh plant material to cultivate an obligate mutualistic fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus in specialized fungus gardens to access and transform nutrients from plant biomass that would otherwise be unavailable to the ants. Here, we evaluated the lipidomic differences between the leaves feeding the gardens, gongylidia produced by the fungus to feed the ants, and spatially-resolve regions of the fungus garden at initial to advanced stages of leaf degradation.
Project description:Transposable elements (TEs) are genomic parasites that constitute the most abundant portions of higher plant genomes. However, whether TE selection occurred during crop domestication remains unknown. HUO is active under normal growth conditions, present at low copy numbers, inserts preferentially into regions capable of transcription, but absent in almost all modern varieties, indicating its removal during rice domestication and modern rice breeding. HUO triggers genomic immunity and dramatically alters genome-wide methylation levels and small RNA biogenesis, as well as global gene expression. Its presence specifically affects agronomic traits by decreasing yield performance and disease resistance but enhancing salt tolerance, which mechanistically explains its domestication removal. Thus, our study reveals a unique retrotransposon as a negative target for maintaining genetic and epigenetic stability during crop domestication and selection.
2018-03-08 | GSE78900 | GEO
Project description:Phylogeny of fungus-farming ant Sericomyrmex
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE31344: smRNA sequencing of queen and virgin queen of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator GSE31346: Transcriptome sequencing of queen and virgin queen of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator GSE31576: Single base resolution methylome of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator Refer to individual Series