ArticleISME communications2021
Worker-dependent gut symbiosis in an ant.
Article in ISME communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Social Structure and Interactions Differentially Shape Aerotolerant and Anaerobic Gut Microbiomes in a Cooperative Breeding Species.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Spiroplasma Display an Intricate Continuum of Infection Heterogeneity and Persistence in Myrmica Ants.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- The littler things that run the little things that run the world.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Dietary niche shapes bacterial community in Indo-Pacific ants.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Social organization and physical environment shape the microbiome of harvester ants.Animal microbiome · 2025Article
- Interaction with refuse piles is associated with co-occurrence of core gut microbiota in workers of the ant Aphaenogaster picea.Access microbiology · 2025Article
- Social wasp-associated Tsukamurella sp. strains showed promising biosynthetic and bioactive potential for discovery of novel compounds.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Population mixing mediates the intestinal flora composition and facilitates invasiveness in a globally invasive fruit fly.Microbiome · 2023Article
- Complete Genome Sequences of Four Bacteria Isolated from the Gut of a Spiny Ant (Microbiology resource announcements · 2022Article
- The build-up of dominance hierarchies in eusocial insects.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The hallmark of eusocial insects, honeybees, ants, and termites, is division of labor between reproductive and non-reproductive worker castes. In addition, environmental adaption and ecological dominance are also underpinned by symbiotic associations with beneficial microorganisms. Microbial symbionts are generally considered to be maintained in an insect colony in two alternative ways: shared among all colony members or inherited only by a specific caste. Especially in ants, the reproductive caste plays a crucial role in transmission of the symbionts shared among colony members over generations. Here, we report an exceptional case, the worker-dependent microbiota in an ant, Diacamma cf. indicum from Japan. By collecting almost all the individuals from 22 colonies in the field, we revealed that microbiota of workers is characterized by a single dominant bacterium localized at the hindgut. The bacterium belonging to an unclassified member within the phylum Firmicutes, which is scarce or mostly absent in the reproductive castes. Furthermore, we show that the gut symbiont is acquired at the adult stage. Collectively, our findings strongly suggest that the specific symbiont is maintained by only workers, demonstrating a novel pattern of ant-associated bacterial symbiosis, and thus further our understanding of host-microbe interactions in the light of sociobiology.
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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.