Hygiene Defense Behaviors Used by a Fungus-Growing Ant Depend on the Fungal Pathogen Stages
Hygiene Defense Behaviors Used by a Fungus-Growing Ant Depend on the Fungal Pathogen Stages
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DOI：
10.3390/insects10050130
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发表时间：
2019-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Fernandez-Marin, Hermogenes
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bonadies, Ernesto;Wcislo, William T.;Fernandez-Marin, Hermogenes
寄生虫和它们的宿主使用不同的策略来克服对方的防御，常常导致一场进化军备竞赛。有限的动物研究已经探索了不同寄生虫负荷和寄生虫不同发育阶段对宿主的不同反应。生长真菌的蚂蚁Trachymyrmex sp. 10采用三种不同的卫生策略来控制真菌病原体：修饰产生抗生素的胸膜后腺（MGs）和种植或除草它们共生的真菌作物。通过接种不同浓度的绿僵菌（Metarhizium）或不同阶段（Metarhizium和Escovopsis的发芽分生孢子或未发芽分生孢子）的Trachymyrmex菌落，我们测试了蚂蚁是否根据寄生虫挑战的性质调节和改变卫生策略。寄生虫的浓度对防御行为的频率没有影响，表明蚂蚁不会根据威胁程度改变防御策略。然而，当面对发芽或未发芽的Escovopsis sp.和Metarhizium brunneum的分生孢子时，蚂蚁根据分生孢子的萌发状态调整其生殖行为以适应真菌种植和MG修饰行为。我们的研究表明，真菌生长的蚂蚁可以根据寄生虫的性质调整卫生策略的使用。
Parasites and their hosts use different strategies to overcome the defenses of the other, often resulting in an evolutionary arms race. Limited animal studies have explored the differential responses of hosts when challenged by differential parasite loads and different developmental stages of a parasite. The fungus-growing ant Trachymyrmex sp. 10 employs three different hygienic strategies to control fungal pathogens: Grooming the antibiotic-producing metapleural glands (MGs) and planting or weeding their mutualistic fungal crop. By inoculating Trachymyrmex colonies with different parasite concentrations (Metarhizium) or stages (germinated conidia or ungermianted conidia of Metarhizium and Escovopsis), we tested whether ants modulate and change hygienic strategies depending on the nature of the parasite challenge. There was no effect of the concentration of parasite on the frequencies of the defensive behaviors, indicating that the ants did not change defensive strategy according to the level of threat. However, when challenged with conidia of Escovopsis sp. and Metarhizium brunneum that were germinated or not-germinated, the ants adjusted their thygienic behavior to fungal planting and MG grooming behaviors using strategies depending on the conidia germination status. Our study suggests that fungus-growing ants can adjust the use of hygienic strategies based on the nature of the parasites.