Pyrazines from bacteria and ants: convergent chemistry within an ecological niche Journal Articles uri icon

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abstract

  • AbstractAnts use pheromones to coordinate their communal activity. Volatile pyrazines, for instance, mediate food resource gathering and alarm behaviors in different ant species. Here we report that leaf-cutter ant-associated bacteria produce a family of pyrazines that includes members previously identified as ant trail and alarm pheromones. We found that L-threonine induces the bacterial production of the trail pheromone pyrazines, which are common for the host leaf-cutter ants. Isotope feeding experiments revealed that L-threonine along with sodium acetate were the biosynthetic precursors of these natural products and a biosynthetic pathway was proposed.

authors

  • Silva-Junior, Eduardo A
  • Ruzzini, Antonio C
  • Paludo, Camila R
  • Nascimento, Fabio S
  • Currie, Cameron
  • Clardy, Jon
  • Pupo, Mônica T

publication date

  • February 7, 2018