Regulation and specificity of antifungal metapleural gland secretion in leaf-cutting ants
Regulation and specificity of antifungal metapleural gland secretion in leaf-cutting ants
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切叶蚁抗真菌后胸膜腺分泌的调节和特异性
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2012.1458
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Boomsma
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. H. Yek;D. Nash;A. B. Jensen;J. Boomsma
蚂蚁有成对的胸膜后腺（mg）产生分泌物以预防卫生。这些外分泌腺在切叶蚁中特别发达，但蚂蚁是否能主动调节MG的分泌尚不清楚。在一组使用五种真菌分生孢子的对照实验中，我们发现蚂蚁会根据感染真菌的毒力调整MG的分泌量。我们进一步将等量分生孢子攻毒的蚂蚁分泌的固定体积MG应用于相同真菌种类的琼脂垫。这表明，与对照和escovopses挑战的蚂蚁相比，毒力和轻度病原体/杂草挑战的蚂蚁的抑制晕明显更大。我们得出结论，切叶蚁的MG防御系统具有额外的表皮免疫系统的特征，具有特异性和非特异性成分，其中一些是组成部分，另一些是诱导的。
Ants have paired metapleural glands (MGs) to produce secretions for prophylactic hygiene. These exocrine glands are particularly well developed in leaf-cutting ants, but whether the ants can actively regulate MG secretion is unknown. In a set of controlled experiments using conidia of five fungi, we show that the ants adjust the amount of MG secretion to the virulence of the fungus with which they are infected. We further applied fixed volumes of MG secretion of ants challenged with constant conidia doses to agar mats of the same fungal species. This showed that inhibition halos were significantly larger for ants challenged with virulent and mild pathogens/weeds than for controls and Escovopsis-challenged ants. We conclude that the MG defence system of leaf-cutting ants has characteristics reminiscent of an additional cuticular immune system, with specific and non-specific components, of which some are constitutive and others induced.