Prevalence and impact of a virulent parasite on a tripartite mutualism
Prevalence and impact of a virulent parasite on a tripartite mutualism
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DOI：
10.1007/s004420100630
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发表时间：
2001-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Currie, CR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Currie, CR
在巴拿马的实验室和田间对感染切叶蚁真菌花园的一种专门的微真菌寄生虫（Escovopsis）的流行和影响进行了研究。Escovopsis是切叶蚁群中常见的寄生虫，并且显然在Acromyrmex spp中更常见。花园比花园的花园更容易遗传衍生属Atra spp。此外，较大的阿塔属物种的殖民地。感染寄生虫的频率似乎较低。在这项研究中，寄生虫Escovopsis对蚂蚁，真菌和细菌之间的互利共生的成功产生了重大影响。受感染的殖民地有一个显着较低的率真菌花园积累和生产的工人大大减少。此外，菌落生长速率的降低程度取决于分离株，其中一个分离株的影响明显大于另外两个分离株，这表明Escovopsis具有不同水平的毒力。Escovopsis在空间上也集中在蚂蚁真菌花园的部分区域内，与较老的区域相比，较年轻的区域具有显著较低的感染率。真菌生长的蚂蚁花园是一种与这三种互利主义者中的任何一种都不相关的致命病原体的宿主，这一发现表明，无关的生物可能很重要，但主要是其他互利主义协会中被忽视的成分。
The prevalence and impact of a specialized microfungal parasite (Escovopsis) that infects the fungus gardens of leaf-cutting ants was examined in the laboratory and in the field in Panama. Escovopsis is a common parasite of leaf-cutting ant colonies and is apparently more frequent in Acromyrmex spp. gardens than in gar dens of the more phylogenetically derived genus Atra spp. In addition, larger colonies of Atta spp. appear to be less frequently infected with the parasite. In this study, the parasite Escovopsis had a major impact on the success of this mutualism among ants, fungi, and bacteria. Infected colonies had a significantly lower rate of fungus garden accumulation and produced substantially fewer workers. In addition, the extent of the reduction in colony growth rate depended on the isolate, with one isolate having a significantly larger impact than two others, suggesting that Escovopsis has different levels of virulence. Escovopsis is also spatially concentrated within parts of ant fungus gardens, with the younger regions having significantly lower rates of infection as compared to the older regions. The discovery that gardens of fungus-growing ants are host to a virulent pathogen that is not related to any of the three mutualists suggests that unrelated organisms may be important but primarily over-looked components of other mutualistic associations.