title: Unraveling Trichoderma species in the attine ant environment: description of three new taxa.
abstract: Fungus-growing "attine" ants forage diverse substrates to grow fungi for food. In addition to the mutualistic fungal partner, the colonies of these insects harbor a rich microbiome composed of bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts. Previous work reported some Trichoderma species in the fungus gardens of leafcutter ants. However, no studies systematically addressed the putative association of Trichoderma with attine ants, especially in non-leafcutter ants. Here, a total of 62 strains of Trichoderma were analyzed using three molecular markers (ITS, tef1 and rpb2). In addition, 30 out of 62 strains were also morphologically examined. The strains studied correspond to the largest sampling carried out so far for Trichoderma in the attine ant environment. Our results revealed the richness of Trichoderma in this environment, since we found 20 Trichoderma species, including three new taxa described in the present work (Trichoderma attinorum, Trichoderma texanum and Trichoderma longifialidicum spp. nov.) as well as a new phylogenetic taxon (LESF 545). Moreover, we show that all 62 strains grouped within different clades across the Trichoderma phylogeny, which are identical or closely related to strains derived from several other environments. This evidence supports the transient nature of the genus Trichoderma in the attine ant colonies. The discovery of three new species suggests that the dynamic foraging behavior of these insects might be responsible for accumulation of transient fungi into their colonies, which might hold additional fungal taxa still unknown to science.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, UNESP - São Paulo State University, Avenida 24-A, n. 1515, Bela Vista, Rio Claro, SP, CEP: 13.506-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Quimi Vidaurre
authors.initials: QV
authors.lastname: Montoya
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, UNESP - São Paulo State University, Avenida 24-A, n. 1515, Bela Vista, Rio Claro, SP, CEP: 13.506-900, Brazil.|Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Lucas Andrade
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Meirelles
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland, 2112 Plant Sciences Building, College Park, MD, 20742, USA.|Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Apartado 11501-2060, San Pedro, San José, Costa Rica.
authors.forename: Priscila
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chaverri
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, UNESP - São Paulo State University, Avenida 24-A, n. 1515, Bela Vista, Rio Claro, SP, CEP: 13.506-900, Brazil. andrer@rc.unesp.br.
authors.forename: Andre
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4164-9362
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000382:microbiology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D064307:Microbiota; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000166:cytology; D013559:Symbiosis; D014242:Trichoderma / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
keywords: Attini; Fungus garden; Hypocreales; Richness; Soil; Transient