Ancient tripartite coevolution in the attine ant-microbe symbiosis.
The symbiosis between fungus-growing ants and the fungi they cultivate for food has been shaped by 50 million years of coevolution. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that this long coevolutionary history includes a third symbiont lineage: specialized microfungal parasites of the ants' fungus gardens. At ancient levels, the phylogenies of the three symbionts are perfectly congruent, revealing that the ant-microbe symbiosis is the product of tripartite coevolution between the farming ants, their cultivars, and the garden parasites. At recent phylogenetic levels, coevolution has been punctuated by occasional host-switching by the parasite, thus intensifying continuous coadaptation between symbionts in a tripartite arms race.
Currie
Cameron R
CR
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. ccurrie@ku.edu
Wong
Bess
B
Stuart
Alison E
AE
Schultz
Ted R
TR
Rehner
Stephen A
SA
Mueller
Ulrich G
UG
Sung
Gi-Ho
GH
Spatafora
Joseph W
JW
Straus
Neil A
NA
D000363:Agaricales / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology*; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000502:physiology; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D006999:Hypocreales / Q000145:classification / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013559:Symbiosis
D004271:DNA, Fungal