Fungi as mutualistic partners in ant-plant interactions

Autor(en)
Veronika Mayer, Hermann Voglmayr, Rumsais Blatrix, Jérôme Orivel, Céline Leroy
Abstrakt

Associations between fungi and ants living in mutualistic relationship with plants (“plant-ants”) have been known for a long time. However, only in recent years has the mutualistic nature, frequency, and geographical extent of associations between tropical arboreal ants with fungi of the ascomycete order Chaetothyriales and Capnodiales (belonging to the so-called “Black Fungi”) become clear. Two groups of arboreal ants displaying different nesting strategies are associated with ascomycete fungi: carton-building ants that construct nest walls and galleries on stems, branches or below leaves which are overgrown by fungal hyphae, and plant-ants that make their nests inside living plants (myrmecophytes) in plant provided cavities (domatia) where ants cultivate fungi in small delimited “patches”. In this review we summarize the current knowledge about these unsuspected plant-ant-fungus interactions. The data suggest, that at least some of these ant-associated fungi seem to have coevolved with ants over a long period of time and have developed specific adaptations to this lifestyle.

Organisation(en)
Department für Botanik und Biodiversitätsforschung
Externe Organisation(en)
Université de Montpellier, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane
Journal
Frontiers in Fungal Biology
Band
2023
Anzahl der Seiten
14
ISSN
2673-6128
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/ffunb.2023.1213997
Publikationsdatum
2023
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
106008 Botanik, 106012 Evolutionsforschung, 106042 Systematische Botanik
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Environmental Science (miscellaneous), Infectious Diseases, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Microbiology
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/09eaabdd-c9b2-4409-8fa0-746b93ab24b8