ArticleApplied and environmental microbiology2013
Leucoagaricus gongylophorus produces diverse enzymes for the degradation of recalcitrant plant polymers in leaf-cutter ant fungus gardens.
Article in Applied and environmental microbiology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
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51 citing papers in PubMed, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bacterial Diversity in Leaf-Cutter Ant Species: Host-Microbe Interactions and Environmental Effects.Neotropical entomology · 2026Article
- Harnessing the versatility of Sphingobium yanoikuyae: a review of its taxonomy, genomics, and multifaceted applications.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Review
- A Conserved Lignocellulolytic Secretome with Quantitative Modulation inMycobiology · 2026Article
- You are what your fungus eats: diet shapes the microbial garden of a fungus-growing ant.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Examining the Assembly of the Bacterial Community Associated with the Fungus Garden of Atta mexicana (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Does Queen Origin Matter?Current microbiology · 2025Article
- Bacterial communities of fungus-growing ant queens are species-specific and suggest vertical transmission.PloS one · 2025Article
- Genomic Signatures of Domestication in a Fungus Obligately Farmed by Leafcutter Ants.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Mapping microhabitats of lignocellulose decomposition by a microbial consortium.Nature chemical biology · 2024Article
- Leafcutter ants enhance microbial drought resilience in tropical forest soil.Environmental microbiology reports · 2024Article
- A comparative analysis of soil physicochemical properties and microbial community structure among four shelterbelt species in the northeast China plain.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Article
- The Hyphosphere of Leaf-Cutting Ant Cultivars Is Enriched with Helper Bacteria.Microbial ecology · 2023Article
- The Volatile Organic Compounds ofMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- Article
- Genome analysis and genomic comparison of a fungal cultivar of the nonsocial weevilFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Bacterial and Fungal Co-Occurrence in the Nudibranch,Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The Symbiotic FungusInsects · 2022Review
- A fungal symbiont converts provisioned cellulose into edible yield for its leafcutter ant farmers.Biology letters · 2022Article
- Lessons From Insect Fungiculture: From Microbial Ecology to Plastics Degradation.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Carbon dioxide levels in initial nests of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Chemical Gradients of Plant Substrates in anmSystems · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plants represent a large reservoir of organic carbon comprised primarily of recalcitrant polymers that most metazoans are unable to deconstruct. Many herbivores gain access to nutrients in this material indirectly by associating with microbial symbionts, and leaf-cutter ants are a paradigmatic example. These ants use fresh foliar biomass as manure to cultivate gardens composed primarily of Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, a basidiomycetous fungus that produces specialized hyphal swellings that serve as a food source for the host ant colony. Although leaf-cutter ants are conspicuous herbivores that contribute substantially to carbon turnover in Neotropical ecosystems, the process through which plant biomass is degraded in their fungus gardens is not well understood. Here we present the first draft genome of L. gongylophorus, and, using genomic and metaproteomic tools, we investigate its role in lignocellulose degradation in the gardens of both Atta cephalotes and Acromyrmex echinatior leaf-cutter ants. We show that L. gongylophorus produces a diversity of lignocellulases in ant gardens and is likely the primary driver of plant biomass degradation in these ecosystems. We also show that this fungus produces distinct sets of lignocellulases throughout the different stages of biomass degradation, including numerous cellulases and laccases that likely play an important role in lignocellulose degradation. Our study provides a detailed analysis of plant biomass degradation in leaf-cutter ant fungus gardens and insight into the enzymes underlying the symbiosis between these dominant herbivores and their obligate fungal cultivar.
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