Symbiotic nitrogen fixation in the fungus gardens of leaf-cutter ants.
Science, 2009/11/20;326(5956):1120-3.
Pinto-Tomás AA[1], Anderson MA, Suen G, Stevenson DM, Chu FS, Cleland WW, Weimer PJ, Currie CR
Affiliations
PMID: 19965433DOI: 10.1126/science.1173036
Impact factor: 63.714
Abstract
Bacteria-mediated acquisition of atmospheric N2 serves as a critical source of nitrogen in terrestrial ecosystems. Here we reveal that symbiotic nitrogen fixation facilitates the cultivation of specialized fungal crops by leaf-cutter ants. By using acetylene reduction and stable isotope experiments, we demonstrated that N2 fixation occurred in the fungus gardens of eight leaf-cutter ant species and, further, that this fixed nitrogen was incorporated into ant biomass. Symbiotic N2-fixing bacteria were consistently isolated from the fungus gardens of 80 leaf-cutter ant colonies collected in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Panama. The discovery of N2 fixation within the leaf-cutter ant-microbe symbiosis reveals a previously unrecognized nitrogen source in neotropical ecosystems.
MeSH terms
Acetylene; Animals; Ants; Argentina; Costa Rica; Ecosystem; Fungi; Klebsiella; Molecular Sequence Data; Nitrogen; Nitrogen Fixation; Oxidation-Reduction; Panama; Pantoea; Phylogeny; Plant Leaves; Symbiosis
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