title: Free-living fungal symbionts (Lepiotaceae) of fungus-growing ants (Attini: Formicidae).
abstract: Surveys of leucocoprinaceous fungi (Lepiotaceae, Agaricales, Basidiomycota) in the rainforests of Panama and Brazil revealed several free-living counterparts of fungi cultivated by primitive attine ants (the lower Attini, Formicidae, Hymenoptera), adding to two such collections identified in a survey by Mueller et al (1998). The accumulated evidence supports the hypothesis that perhaps all fungi of lower attine ants have close free-living relatives. Free-living counterparts of ant-cultivated fungi are collected most readily during the early rainy season; in particular these are free-living mushrooms of fungal counterparts that are cultivated as yeasts in gardens of ants in the Cyphomyrmex rimosus group. Free-living and symbiotic fungi of these yeast-cultivating ant species might represent a promising study system to compare the biology of sympatric, conspecific fungi existing outside versus inside the attine symbiosis.
authors.affiliation: Section of Integrative Biology, Patterson Laboratories, 1 University Station C0930, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Tanya L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Vo
authors.forename: Ulrich G
authors.initials: UG
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Alexander S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mikheyev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000382:microbiology*; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000502:physiology*