ArticleThe ISME journal2022
Convergent evolution of a labile nutritional symbiosis in ants.
Article in The ISME journal, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Metabolic plasticity supports a flexible nutritional symbiosis in Cardiocondyla ants.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A meta-analysis of ant-mediated effects on soil carbon cycling and organic matter stability.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Spiroplasma Display an Intricate Continuum of Infection Heterogeneity and Persistence in Myrmica Ants.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Comparative analysis of 163 ant genomes reveals recurrent horizontal gene transfer from bacteria to ants.GigaScience · 2026Article
- Article
- Symbiotic solutions for colony nutrition: Conserved nitrogen recycling within the bacterial pouch ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Making yogurt with the ant holobiont uncovers bacteria, acids, and enzymes for food fermentation.iScience · 2025Article
- Dietary niche shapes bacterial community in Indo-Pacific ants.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Origin and function of beneficial bacterial symbioses in insects.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2025Review
- Defensive Symbiont Genotype Distributions Are Linked to Parasitoid Attack Networks.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Evolutionary history of tyrosine-supplementing endosymbionts in pollen-feeding beetles.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- Physiological and evolutionary contexts of a new symbiotic species from the nitrogen-recycling gut community of turtle ants.The ISME journal · 2023Article
- Symbioses shape feeding niches and diversification across insects.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Article
- Queens control caste allocation in the antProceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Evidence of phylosymbiosis inFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Host habitat rather than evolutionary history explains gut microbiome diversity in sympatric stickleback species.Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Endosymbiosis allowsFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Rational engineering of a synthetic insect-bacterial mutualism.Current biology : CB · 2022Article
- Nutritional symbionts enhance structural defence against predation and fungal infection in a grain pest beetle.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- Evolution and ontogeny of bacteriocytes in insects.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Ants are among the most successful organisms on Earth. It has been suggested that forming symbioses with nutrient-supplementing microbes may have contributed to their success, by allowing ants to invade otherwise inaccessible niches. However, it is unclear whether ants have evolved symbioses repeatedly to overcome the same nutrient limitations. Here, we address this question by comparing the independently evolved symbioses in Camponotus, Plagiolepis, Formica and Cardiocondyla ants. Our analysis reveals the only metabolic function consistently retained in all of the symbiont genomes is the capacity to synthesise tyrosine. We also show that in certain multi-queen lineages that have co-diversified with their symbiont for millions of years, only a fraction of queens carry the symbiont, suggesting ants differ in their colony-level reliance on symbiont-derived resources. Our results imply that symbioses can arise to solve common problems, but hosts may differ in their dependence on symbionts, highlighting the evolutionary forces influencing the persistence of long-term endosymbiotic mutualisms.
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Registered trials
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