ArticleeLife2018
Reconstructing the functions of endosymbiotic Mollicutes in fungus-growing ants.
Article in eLife, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bacterial Diversity in Leaf-Cutter Ant Species: Host-Microbe Interactions and Environmental Effects.Neotropical entomology · 2026Article
- Dietary niche shapes bacterial community in Indo-Pacific ants.Microbiology spectrum · 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
- Article
- Bacterial communities of fungus-growing ant queens are species-specific and suggest vertical transmission.PloS one · 2025Article
- From the inside out: Were the cuticularPNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Two +ssRNA mycoviruses cohabiting the fungal cultivar of leafcutter ants.Virology journal · 2024Article
- Symbiosis, dysbiosis and the impact of horizontal exchange on bacterial microbiomes in higher fungus-gardening ants.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Shotgun metagenomics reveals the gut microbial diversity and functions inFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Review
- A novel and dual digestive symbiosis scales up the nutrition and immune system of the holobiont Rimicaris exoculata.Microbiome · 2022Article
- A global phylogenomic and metabolic reconstruction of the large intestine bacterial community of domesticated cattle.Microbiome · 2022Article
- Trachymyrmex septentrionalis Ant Microbiome Assembly Is Unique to Individual Colonies and Castes.mSphere · 2022Article
- Effect of 6-Methoxybenzoxazolinone on the Cecal Microbiota of Adult Male Brandt's Vole.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Three phylogenetically distinct and culturable diazotrophs are perennial symbionts of leaf-cutting ants.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- The multidimensional nutritional niche of fungus-cultivar provisioning in free-ranging colonies of a neotropical leafcutter ant.Ecology letters · 2021Article
- Competition-based screening helps to secure the evolutionary stability of a defensive microbiome.BMC biology · 2021Article
- Article
- Nutritional niches reveal fundamental domestication trade-offs in fungus-farming ants.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Article
- Arthropod-Microbiota Integration: Its Importance for Ecosystem Conservation.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Mollicutes, a widespread class of bacteria associated with animals and plants, were recently identified as abundant abdominal endosymbionts in healthy workers of attine fungus-farming leaf-cutting ants. We obtained draft genomes of the two most common strains harbored by Panamanian fungus-growing ants. Reconstructions of their functional significance showed that they are independently acquired symbionts, most likely to decompose excess arginine consistent with the farmed fungal cultivars providing this nitrogen-rich amino-acid in variable quantities. Across the attine lineages, the relative abundances of the two Mollicutes strains are associated with the substrate types that foraging workers offer to fungus gardens. One of the symbionts is specific to the leaf-cutting ants and has special genomic machinery to catabolize citrate/glucose into acetate, which appears to deliver direct metabolic energy to the ant workers. Unlike other Mollicutes associated with insect hosts, both attine ant strains have complete phage-defense systems, underlining that they are actively maintained as mutualistic symbionts.
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Registered trials
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