Detection of mitochondrial COII DNA sequences in ant guts as a method for assessing termite predation by ants.
Detection of mitochondrial COII DNA sequences in ant guts as a method for assessing termite predation by ants.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0122533
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发表时间：
2015
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Eggleton P
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fayle TM;Scholtz O;Dumbrell AJ;Russell S;Segar ST;Eggleton P
白蚁和蚂蚁对热带雨林动物生物量的贡献比任何其他单一群体都要大，并发挥着重要的生态系统功能。虽然蚂蚁捕食白蚁，但在群落水平上，这些群体之间的联系知之甚少。因此，评估蚂蚁食白蚁的分布和特异性是相当感兴趣的。我们描述了一种方法，通过对蚂蚁肠道中的白蚁DNA（细胞色素c氧化酶亚基II，COII）进行测序来量化蚂蚁食物网，并将其应用于加蓬热带雨林中的土栖蚂蚁群落。我们从15个物种的215只蚂蚁中提取了DNA。其中，17.2%的个体在其肠道中具有白蚁DNA，BLAST分析证实了这些白蚁中34.1%的家庭水平或更好的身份。虽然蚂蚁物种在检测白蚁DNA方面有所不同，范围从63%（5/7; Camponotus sp. 1）到0%（0/7; Ponera sp. 1），但没有证据（小样本量）表明蚂蚁类群之间的白蚁消费异质性，也没有证据表明物种特异性蚂蚁-白蚁捕食。在所有三个蚂蚁物种与可识别的白蚁DNA在多个个体，多个白蚁物种的代表。此外，在蚂蚁肠道中多次检测到的两种白蚁物种在两种情况下都存在于多个蚂蚁物种中，这表明蚂蚁-白蚁食物网并没有强烈的划分。然而，两种蚂蚁被发现只消耗Anoplotermes组白蚁，表明可能的捕食专业化在更高的分类水平。使用实验室喂养测试，我们能够检测到白蚁COII序列在蚂蚁肠道喂养后2小时，表明我们的方法只检测最近的喂养事件。我们的数据提供了初步支持的假设，蚂蚁的非专业白蚁捕食是普遍的，并强调使用分子方法为未来的研究蚂蚁白蚁食物网。
Termites and ants contribute more to animal biomass in tropical rain forests than any other single group and perform vital ecosystem functions. Although ants prey on termites, at the community level the linkage between these groups is poorly understood. Thus, assessing the distribution and specificity of ant termitophagy is of considerable interest. We describe an approach for quantifying ant-termite food webs by sequencing termite DNA (cytochrome c oxidase subunit II, COII) from ant guts and apply this to a soil-dwelling ant community from tropical rain forest in Gabon. We extracted DNA from 215 ants from 15 species. Of these, 17.2 % of individuals had termite DNA in their guts, with BLAST analysis confirming the identity of 34.1 % of these termites to family level or better. Although ant species varied in detection of termite DNA, ranging from 63 % (5/7; Camponotus sp. 1) to 0 % (0/7; Ponera sp. 1), there was no evidence (with small sample sizes) for heterogeneity in termite consumption across ant taxa, and no evidence for species-specific ant-termite predation. In all three ant species with identifiable termite DNA in multiple individuals, multiple termite species were represented. Furthermore, the two termite species that were detected on multiple occasions in ant guts were in both cases found in multiple ant species, suggesting that ant-termite food webs are not strongly compartmentalised. However, two ant species were found to consume only Anoplotermes-group termites, indicating possible predatory specialisation at a higher taxonomic level. Using a laboratory feeding test, we were able to detect termite COII sequences in ant guts up to 2 h after feeding, indicating that our method only detects recent feeding events. Our data provide tentative support for the hypothesis that unspecialised termite predation by ants is widespread and highlight the use of molecular approaches for future studies of ant-termite food webs.
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影响因子：
2.2
作者：
Donovan, SE;Eggleton, P;Bignell, DE
通讯作者：
Bignell, DE
影响因子：
2.1
作者：
FITTKAU E J;KLINGE H
通讯作者：
KLINGE H
影响因子：
1.3
作者：
DEJEAN, A;BASHINGWA, EP
通讯作者：
BASHINGWA, EP
JMOTU和分类器：将DNA条形码序列变成带注释的操作分类单元。
影响因子：
3.7
作者：
Jones M;Ghoorah A;Blaxter M
通讯作者：
Blaxter M
DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2008.1264
发表时间：
2009-02-22
影响因子：
4.7
作者：
Jurado-Rivera, Jose A.;Vogler, Alfried P.;Gomez-Zurita, Jesus
通讯作者：
Gomez-Zurita, Jesus