From plants to ants: Fungal modification of leaf lipids for nutrition and communication in the leaf-cutter ant fungal garden ecosystem

Abstract Lipids are essential to all living organisms, as an energy source, as an important cellular structural component, and as a communication tool. In this study, we used global lipidomic methods to evaluate the lipids in leaf-cutter ant fungal gardens. Leaf-cutter ants and their coevolved fungal cultivar, Leucoagaricus gongylophorus , are a model mutualistic system. The fungus enzymatically digests fresh plant material that the ants cut …