ArticleNature communications2018
Chemical warfare between leafcutter ant symbionts and a co-evolved pathogen.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 107 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence for Cryptic Sex in Escovopsis, a Mycoparasite in the Fungus-Growing Ant Symbiosis.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Metagenomic insights into viral and microbial genes of Russian High-Arctic soil microbiomes.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Towards a Novel Biocontrol Strategy: High Performance of Optimised Cell Wall-Degrading Enzymes Secreted by Escovopsis primorosea LBM 277.Environmental microbiology reports · 2026Article
- Deciphering taxon-specific metabolic shifts during pathogenic fungal infection in leaf-cutter ant fungal gardens.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Multi-layered engineering of Aspergillus terreus enhances biosynthesis of the plant-derived fungicide physcion.Microbial cell factories · 2025Article
- Microbe Profile:Microbiology (Reading, England) · 2025Review
- Digging into the evolutionary history of the fungus-growing-ant symbiont, Escovopsis (Hypocreaceae).Communications biology · 2025Article
- Context matters: assessing the impacts of genomic background and ecology on microbial biosynthetic gene cluster evolution.mSystems · 2025Review
- Review
- Bacteria from the Amycolatopsis genus associated with a toxic bird secrete protective secondary metabolites.Nature communications · 2024Article
- From the inside out: Were the cuticularPNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Two +ssRNA mycoviruses cohabiting the fungal cultivar of leafcutter ants.Virology journal · 2024Article
- Article
- In silico prediction of polyketide biosynthetic gene clusters in the genomes of Hypericum-borne endophytic fungi.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- The fungusFrontiers in fungal biology · 2024Review
- Taxonomy and systematics of the fungus-growing ant associateStudies in mycology · 2023Article
- Article
- Production ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The 'emodin family' of fungal natural products-amalgamating a century of research with recent genomics-based advances.Natural product reports · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Acromyrmex leafcutter ants form a mutually beneficial symbiosis with the fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus and with Pseudonocardia bacteria. Both are vertically transmitted and actively maintained by the ants. The fungus garden is manured with freshly cut leaves and provides the sole food for the ant larvae, while Pseudonocardia cultures are reared on the ant-cuticle and make antifungal metabolites to help protect the cultivar against disease. If left unchecked, specialized parasitic Escovopsis fungi can overrun the fungus garden and lead to colony collapse. We report that Escovopsis upregulates the production of two specialized metabolites when it infects the cultivar. These compounds inhibit Pseudonocardia and one, shearinine D, also reduces worker behavioral defenses and is ultimately lethal when it accumulates in ant tissues. Our results are consistent with an active evolutionary arms race between Pseudonocardia and Escovopsis, which modifies both bacterial and behavioral defenses such that colony collapse is unavoidable once Escovopsis infections escalate.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.