Obligate plant farming by a specialized ant
Obligate plant farming by a specialized ant
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DOI：
10.1038/nplants.2016.181
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发表时间：
2016-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
18
通讯作者：
Renner, Susanne S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chomicki, Guillaume;Renner, Susanne S.
许多附生植物与蚂蚁结合以获得营养。在这里，我们报告了一种新型的蚂蚁植物共生在斐济，一个蚂蚁物种积极和专门的种子和受精的幼苗的六个物种的Squamellaria（Rubiaceae）。与相关的兼性蚂蚁植物的比较表明，这种农业发挥了关键作用，通过减轻关键的重建步骤，在互惠稳定。
Many epiphytic plants have associated with ants to gain nutrients. Here, we report a novel type of ant-plant symbiosis in Fiji where one ant species actively and exclusively plants the seeds and fertilizes the seedlings of six species of Squamellaria (Rubiaceae). Comparison with related facultative ant plants suggests that such farming plays a key role in mutualism stability by mitigating the critical re-establishment step.