Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation in the Fungus Gardens of Leaf-Cutter Ants Journal Articles

abstract

• Gardening for Ants and Termites Among the social insects, ants and termites are the most diverse and ecologically dominant. Termites are known to engage in a mutualism with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and Pinto-Tomás et al. (p. 1120 ) have identified similar relationships occurring among leaf-cutter ants, which maintain specialized nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their fungus gardens. Together, these mutualisms are a major source of nitrogen in terrestrial ecosystems. How is the evolutionary stability of such mutualistic cooperation maintained? Aanen et al. (p. 1103 ) show that the Termitomyces fungus cultured by termites remains highly related because mycelia of the same clone fuse together and grow more efficiently to out-compete rare clones.

authors

• Pinto-Tomás, Adrián A
• Anderson, Mark A
• Suen, Garret
• Stevenson, David M
• Chu, Fiona ST
• Cleland, W Wallace
• Weimer, Paul J
• Currie, Cameron

status

• published 

publication date

• November 20, 2009

has subject area

• Acetylene (MeSH)
• Animals (MeSH)
• Ants (MeSH)
• Argentina (MeSH)
• Costa Rica (MeSH)
• Ecosystem (MeSH)
• Fungi (MeSH)
• General Science & Technology (Science Metrix)
• Klebsiella (MeSH)
• Molecular Sequence Data (MeSH)
• Nitrogen (MeSH)
• Nitrogen Fixation (MeSH)
• Oxidation-Reduction (MeSH)
• Panama (MeSH)
• Pantoea (MeSH)
• Phylogeny (MeSH)
• Plant Leaves (MeSH)
• Symbiosis (MeSH)

published in

• Science  Journal

keywords

• Acetylene
• Animals
• Ants
• Argentina
• Costa Rica
• Ecosystem
• Fungi
• Klebsiella
• Molecular Sequence Data
• Nitrogen
• Nitrogen Fixation
• Oxidation-Reduction
• Panama
• Pantoea
• Phylogeny
• Plant Leaves
• Symbiosis

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1126/science.1173036

PubMed ID

• 19965433

start page

• 1120

end page

• 1123

volume

• 326

issue

• 5956