Reconstructing the functions of endosymbiotic Mollicutes in fungus-growing ants

Mollicutes, a widespread class of bacteria associated with animals and plants, were recently identified as abundant abdominal endosymbionts in healthy workers of attine fungus-farming leaf-cutting ants. We obtained draft genomes of the two most common strains harbored by Panamanian fungus-growing an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2018-11, Vol.7
Main Authors: Sapountzis, Panagiotis, Zhukova, Mariya, Shik, Jonathan Z, Schiott, Morten, Boomsma, Jacobus J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acetates - metabolism
Acetic acid
Agricultural pests
Amino acids
Animals
Ants
Ants - microbiology
Arginine
Arginine - metabolism
Attini
Bacteria
Bacterial genetics
Biotransformation
Citrates - metabolism
Citric acid
Cultivars
diet supplementation
Ecology
Ecology, environment
Endosymbionts
Energy metabolism
Entomoplasmatales
Evolutionary Biology
Fertilizers
Fungi
Fungus gardens
Gardens
Generalized linear models
Genes
Genetic research
Genomes
Genomics
Glucose - metabolism
Harvesting
Insects
Intestines - microbiology
leafcutter ants
Leaves
Life Sciences
Metabolism
Metabolites
Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms)
Mollicutes
mutualism
Phages
Plants (Organisms)
Strains (organisms)
Symbionts
Symbiosis
Tenericutes - physiology
Workers (insect caste)
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Summary:Mollicutes, a widespread class of bacteria associated with animals and plants, were recently identified as abundant abdominal endosymbionts in healthy workers of attine fungus-farming leaf-cutting ants. We obtained draft genomes of the two most common strains harbored by Panamanian fungus-growing ants. Reconstructions of their functional significance showed that they are independently acquired symbionts, most likely to decompose excess arginine consistent with the farmed fungal cultivars providing this nitrogen-rich amino-acid in variable quantities. Across the attine lineages, the relative abundances of the two Mollicutes strains are associated with the substrate types that foraging workers offer to fungus gardens. One of the symbionts is specific to the leaf-cutting ants and has special genomic machinery to catabolize citrate/glucose into acetate, which appears to deliver direct metabolic energy to the ant workers. Unlike other Mollicutes associated with insect hosts, both attine ant strains have complete phage-defense systems, underlining that they are actively maintained as mutualistic symbionts.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.39209