Symbiont-Mediated Host-Parasite Dynamics in a Fungus-Gardening Ant

  • Katrin Kellner
  • M. R. Kardish
  • J. N. Seal
  • T. A. Linksvayer
  • U. G. Mueller
Host Microbe Interactions
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Group-living can promote the evolution of adaptive strategies to prevent and control disease. Fungus-gardening ants must cope with two sets of pathogens, those that afflict the ants themselves and those of their symbiotic fungal gardens. While much research has demonstrated the impact of specialized fungal pathogens that infect ant fungus gardens, most of these studies focused on the so-called higher attine ants, which are thought to coevolve diffusely with two clades of leucocoprinaceous fungi. Relatively few studies have addressed disease ecology of lower Attini, which are thought to occasionally recruit (domesticate) novel leucocoprinaceous fungi from free-living populations; coevolution between lower-attine ants and their fungi is therefore likely weaker (or even absent) than in the higher Attini, which generally have many derived modifications. Toward understanding the disease ecology of lower-attine ants, this study (a) describes the diversity in the microfungal genus Escovopsis that naturally infect fungus gardens of the lower-attine ant Mycocepurus smithii and (b) experimentally determines the relative contributions of Escovopsis strain (a possible garden disease), M. smithii ant genotype, and fungal cultivar lineage to disease susceptibility and colony fitness. In controlled in-vivo infection laboratory experiments, we demonstrate that the susceptibility to Escovopsis infection was an outcome of ant-cultivar-Escovopsis interaction, rather than solely due to ant genotype or fungal cultivar lineage. The role of complex ant-cultivar-Escovopsis interactions suggests that switching M. smithii farmers onto novel fungus types might be a strategy to generate novel ant-fungus combinations resistant to most, but perhaps not all, Escovopsis strains circulating in a local population of this and other lower-attine ants.

Keywords

Parasite-host interactions Host-pathogen specificity Escovopsis Mutualism Coevolution Attini 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We thank the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente de Panamá, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Orelis Arosemena and Annette Aiello for collecting and export permits; Hermogenes Fernández, Ruchira Sen, Nancy Lowe, and Nicole Gerardo for help with field collections; Kate Hertweck for advice on analyses in R; Simon Tragust for sharing his spore-harvesting protocols. Comments from three anonymous reviewers helped improve the manuscript.

Funding Information

The work was supported by a National Science Foundation award (DEB-0919519) to TAL and UGM and by the W.M. Wheeler Lost Pines Endowment from the University of Texas at Austin. This paper was written and developed while KK was supported by NSF award DEB-1354629 and JNS was supported by IOS-1552822.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Section of Integrative BiologyUniversity of Texas at AustinAustinUSA
  2. 2.Department of BiologyUniversity of Texas at TylerTylerUSA
  3. 3.Deptartment of Evolution and EcologyUniversity of CaliforniaDavisUSA
  4. 4.Department of BiologyUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUSA

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