ArticleNature communications2016
Reciprocal genomic evolution in the ant-fungus agricultural symbiosis.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers.
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Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed.
- Transposable elements as evolutionary catalysts of ant macrodiversity.Science advances · 2026Article
- Leafcutter Ant Farmers Prevent Loss of Edible Symbiotic Structures by Maintaining Allelic Diversity in Their Multinucleate Fungal Crop.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Novel killer yeasts and toxins from the gardens of fungus-growing ants.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Genome diversification of symbiotic fungi in beetle-fungus mutualistic symbioses.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- You are what your fungus eats: diet shapes the microbial garden of a fungus-growing ant.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- Evidence of cellular adaptations in a fungal cultivar promoting resource exchange with leafcutter ant farmers.Biology letters · 2025Article
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- Harnessing Nutritional Niches to Explore Fungus-Animal Symbioses.Ecology letters · 2025Review
- Hymenopteran-specific TRPA channel from the Texas leaf cutter ant (Atta texana) is heat and cold activated and expression correlates with environmental temperature.Insect science · 2025Article
- Bacterial communities of fungus-growing ant queens are species-specific and suggest vertical transmission.PloS one · 2025Article
- Chromosome Structural Rearrangements in Invasive Haplodiploid Ambrosia Beetles Revealed by the Genomes of Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff) and Euwallacea similis (Ferrari) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae).Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- On the Origins of Symbiotic Fungi in Carmine Cochineals and Their Function in the Digestion of Plant Polysaccharides.Insects · 2024Article
- Genomic Signatures of Domestication in a Fungus Obligately Farmed by Leafcutter Ants.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- From the inside out: Were the cuticularPNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Loss of Lateral suppressor gene is associated with evolution of root nodule symbiosis in Leguminosae.Genome biology · 2024Article
- Dietary potential of the symbiotic fungusApplied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Symbiosis, dysbiosis and the impact of horizontal exchange on bacterial microbiomes in higher fungus-gardening ants.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Phylogenomics of the Ecdysteroid Kinase-like (EcKL) Gene Family in Insects Highlights Roles in Both Steroid Hormone Metabolism and Detoxification.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Evolution of five environmentally responsive gene families in a pine-feeding sawfly,Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The attine ant-fungus agricultural symbiosis evolved over tens of millions of years, producing complex societies with industrial-scale farming analogous to that of humans. Here we document reciprocal shifts in the genomes and transcriptomes of seven fungus-farming ant species and their fungal cultivars. We show that ant subsistence farming probably originated in the early Tertiary (55-60 MYA), followed by further transitions to the farming of fully domesticated cultivars and leaf-cutting, both arising earlier than previously estimated. Evolutionary modifications in the ants include unprecedented rates of genome-wide structural rearrangement, early loss of arginine biosynthesis and positive selection on chitinase pathways. Modifications of fungal cultivars include loss of a key ligninase domain, changes in chitin synthesis and a reduction in carbohydrate-degrading enzymes as the ants gradually transitioned to functional herbivory. In contrast to human farming, increasing dependence on a single cultivar lineage appears to have been essential to the origin of industrial-scale ant agriculture.
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