title: Ancient tripartite coevolution in the attine ant-microbe symbiosis.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. ccurrie@ku.edu
authors.forename: Cameron R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Currie
authors.forename: Bess
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Alison E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Stuart
authors.forename: Ted R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rehner
authors.forename: Ulrich G
authors.initials: UG
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Gi-Ho
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Joseph W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Spatafora
authors.forename: Neil A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Straus
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal