ArticleCommunications biology2023
Bacterial diversity in arboreal ant nesting spaces is linked to colony developmental stage.
Article in Communications biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 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
7 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regulatory mechanisms of nitrogen homeostasis in insect growth and development.Insect science · 2026Review
- Article
- Bacterial Diversity in Leaf-Cutter Ant Species: Host-Microbe Interactions and Environmental Effects.Neotropical entomology · 2026Article
- Vertically transmitted bacterivorous nematodes are consistent nest inhabitants in the Azteca-Cecropia ant-plant mutualism.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Dietary niche shapes bacterial community in Indo-Pacific ants.Microbiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Impact of Species and Developmental Stage on the Bacterial Communities of Aphaenogaster Ants.Current microbiology · 2025Article
- Dynamics and drivers of fungal communities in a multipartite ant-plant association.BMC biology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The omnipresence of ants is commonly attributed to their eusocial organization and division of labor, however, bacteria in their nests may facilitate their success. Like many other arboreal ants living in plant-provided cavities, Azteca ants form dark-colored "patches" in their nesting space inside Cecropia host plants. These patches are inhabited by bacteria, fungi and nematodes and appear to be essential for ant colony development. Yet, detailed knowledge of the microbial community composition and its consistency throughout the life cycle of ant colonies was lacking. Amplicon sequencing of the microbial 16S rRNA genes in patches from established ant colonies reveals a highly diverse, ant species-specific bacterial community and little variation within an individual ant colony, with Burkholderiales, Rhizobiales and Chitinophagales being most abundant. In contrast, bacterial communities of early ant colony stages show low alpha diversity and no ant species-specific community composition. We suggest a substrate-caused bottleneck after vertical transmission of the bacterial patch community from mother to daughter colonies. The subsequent ecological succession is driven by environmental parameters and influenced by ant behavior. Our study provides key information for future investigations determining the functions of these bacteria, which is essential to understand the ubiquity of such patches among arboreal ants.
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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.