scholarly journals Phylogenetic patterns of ant-fungus associations indicate that farming strategies, not only a superior fungal cultivar, explain the ecological success of leafcutter ants

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 2414-2434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich G. Mueller ◽  
Melissa R. Kardish ◽  
Heather D. Ishak ◽  
April M. Wright ◽  
Scott E. Solomon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Leafcutter Ants ◽  
Ecological Success ◽  
Ant Fungus

Comparative microscopic features of ant-garden fungi cultivated by leafcutter ants

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 650-651
Author(s):  
Thomas O. Moninger ◽  
John Cazin ◽  
Donald H. Walker
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Culture Medium ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cereal Grains ◽  
Fungus Garden ◽  
Leafcutter Ants ◽  
Microscopic Features ◽  
Nutritional Needs ◽  
Ant Fungus

Leafcutter ants, the most destructive herbivore in the tropical New World, have earned pest statusin the geographical area extending from the United States to Argentina. To meet nutritional needs andto provide a culture medium for their ant-fungus garden, which is utilized as food for their larvae, the ants attack a wide variety of plant species. They also can utilize various stored dry foodstuff such as cereal grains, flour, beans, and cattle meal. Where they are prevalent, the ants may occupy portions of pasture land, and old collapsed nests may produce holes dangerous for cattle. Nest collapsealso has resulted in sinking or collapse of building foundations, as well as paved roads. Estimates made 65 years ago suggested that yearly losses due to these insects was in the range of one billion dollars.

Historicity of Ecocriticism and Ecocritical History: An Introductory Overview

IJOHMN ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-52
Author(s):  
Jalal Uddin Khan
Keyword(s):  
Extended Family ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Amazon Rainforest ◽  
Sixth Grader ◽  
Leafcutter Ants ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Science Story ◽  
Introductory Overview ◽  
Popular Magazine ◽  
Living Organisms

Overlapping and interconnected, interdisciplinary and heterogeneous, amorphous and multi-layered, and deep and broad as it is, countless topics on ecoliterature make ecocriticism a comprehensive catchall term that proposes to look at a text--be it social, cultural, political, religious, or scientific--from naturalist perspectives and moves us from “the community of literature to the larger biospheric community which […] we belong to even as we are destroying it” (William Rueckert). As I was in the middle of writing and researching for this article, I was struck by a piece of nature writing by an eleven year old sixth grader born to his (South Asian and American) mixed parents, both affiliated with Johns Hopkins and already proud to belong to the extended family of a Nobel Laureate in Physics. The young boy, Rizwan Thorne-Lyman, wrote, as his science story project, an incredibly beautiful essay, “A Day in the Life of the Amazon Rainforest.” Reading about the rainforest was one of his interests, I was told. In describing the day-long activities of birds and animals among the tall trees and small plants, the 2 pp.-long narrative actually captures the eternally continuing natural cycle of the Amazon. The budding naturalist’s neat classification of the wild life into producers (leafy fruit and flowering plants and trees), consumers (caimans/crocodiles, leafcutter ants, capuchin monkey), predators (macaws, harpy eagles, jaguars, green anaconda), decomposers (worms, fungi and bacteria), parasites (phorid flies) and scavengers (millipedes) was found to be unforgettably impressive. Also the organization of the essay into the Amazon’s mutually benefitting and organically functioning flora and fauna during the day--sunrise, midday, and sunset--was unmistakably striking. I congratulated him as an aspiring environmentalist specializing in rain forest. I encouraged him that he should try to get his essay published in a popular magazine like Reader’s Digest (published did he get in no time indeed![i]) and that he should also read about (and visit) Borneo in Southeast Asia, home to other great biodiverse rainforests of the world. I called him “soft names” as a future Greenpeace and Environmental Protection leader and theorist, a soon-to-be close friend of Al Gore’s. The promising boy’s understanding, however short, of the Amazon ecology and ecosystem and the biological phenomena of its living organisms was really amazing. His essay reminded me of other famous nature writings, especially those by Fiona Macleod (see below), that are the pleasure of those interested in the ecocriticism of the literature of place--dooryards, backyards, outdoors, open fields, parks and farms, fields and pastures, and different kinds of other wildernesses.   [i] https://stonesoup.com/post/a-day-in-the-life-in-the-amazon-rainforest/

scholarly journals Metagenomic and metaproteomic insights into bacterial communities in leaf-cutter ant fungus gardens

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 1688-1701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank O Aylward ◽  
Kristin E Burnum ◽  
Jarrod J Scott ◽  
Garret Suen ◽  
Susannah G Tringe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Communities ◽  
Ant Fungus

scholarly journals Evaluation of micro-energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence and histochemical tests for aluminium detection in plants from High Altitude Rocky Complexes, Southeast Brazil

2014 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
NAIARA V. CAMPOS ◽  
TIAGO A.R. PEREIRA ◽  
MARIANA F. MACHADO ◽  
MARCELO B.B. GUERRA ◽  
GLÁUCIA S. TOLENTINO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Accumulation Pattern ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Edx Analysis ◽  
Lycopodium Clavatum ◽  
Histochemical Tests ◽  
Ecological Success ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Non Destructive ◽  
Potential Tool

The soils developed under High Altitude Rocky Complexes in Brazil are generally of very low chemical fertility, with low base saturation and high exchangeable aluminium concentration. This stressful condition imposes evolutionary pressures that lead to ecological success of plant species that are able to tolerate or accumulate high amounts of aluminium. Several analytical methods are currently available for elemental mapping of biological structures, such as micro-X-ray fluorescence (μ-EDX) and histochemical tests. The aim of this study was to combine μ-EDX analysis and histochemical tests to quantify aluminium in plants from High Altitude Rocky Complexes, identifying the main sites for Al-accumulation. Among the studied species, five showed total Al concentration higher than 1000 mg kg−1. The main Al-hyperaccumulator plants, Lavoisiera pectinata, Lycopodium clavatum and Trembleya parviflora presented positive reactions in the histochemical tests using Chrome Azurol and Aluminon. Strong positive correlations were observed between the total Al concentrations and data obtained by μ-EDX analysis. The μ-EDX analysis is a potential tool to map and quantify Al in hyperaccumulator species, and a valuable technique due to its non-destructive capacity. Histochemical tests can be helpful to indicate the accumulation pattern of samples before they are submitted for further μ-EDX scrutiny.

scholarly journals A New Clone Sweeps Clean: the Enigmatic Emergence of Escherichia coli Sequence Type 131

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
pp. 4997-5004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritu Banerjee ◽  
James R. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Sequence Type ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Phylogenetic Studies ◽  
Ecological Success

ABSTRACTEscherichia colisequence type 131 (ST131) is an extensively antimicrobial-resistantE. coliclonal group that has spread explosively throughout the world. Recent molecular epidemiologic and whole-genome phylogenetic studies have elucidated the fine clonal structure of ST131, which comprises multiple ST131 subclones with distinctive resistance profiles, including the (nested) H30, H30-R, and H30-Rx subclones. The most prevalent ST131 subclone, H30, arose from a single common fluoroquinolone (FQ)-susceptible ancestor containing allele 30 offimH(type 1 fimbrial adhesin gene). An early H30 subclone member acquired FQ resistance and launched the rapid expansion of the resulting FQ-resistant subclone, H30-R. Subsequently, a member of H30-R acquired the CTX-M-15 extended-spectrum beta-lactamase and launched the rapid expansion of the CTX-M-15-containing subclone within H30-R, H30-Rx. Clonal expansion clearly is now the dominant mechanism for the rising prevalence of both FQ resistance and CTX-M-15 production in ST131 and inE. coligenerally. Reasons for the successful dissemination and expansion of the key ST131 subclones remain undefined but may include increased transmissibility, greater ability to colonize and/or persist in the intestine or urinary tract, enhanced virulence, and more-extensive antimicrobial resistance compared to otherE. coli. Here we discuss the epidemiology and molecular phylogeny of ST131 and its key subclones, possible mechanisms for their ecological success, implications of their widespread dissemination, and future research needs.

scholarly journals Frontier mutualism: coevolutionary patterns at the northern range limit of the leaf-cutter ant–fungus symbiosis

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1721) ◽  
pp. 3050-3059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich G. Mueller ◽  
Alexander S. Mikheyev ◽  
Scott E. Solomon ◽  
Michael Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Range Limits ◽  
Peripheral Populations ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Dispersal Barrier ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Genetic Patterns ◽  
Northern Range Limit ◽  
Traditional Assumption ◽  
Ant Fungus

Tropical leaf-cutter ants cultivate the fungus Attamyces bromatificus in a many-to-one, diffuse coevolutionary relationship where ant and fungal partners re-associate frequently over time. To evaluate whether ant– Attamyces coevolution is more specific (tighter) in peripheral populations, we characterized the host-specificities of Attamyces genotypes at their northern, subtropical range limits (southern USA, Mexico and Cuba). Population-genetic patterns of northern Attamyces reveal features that have so far not been observed in the diffusely coevolving, tropical ant– Attamyces associations. These unique features include (i) cases of one-to-one ant– Attamyces specialization that tighten coevolution at the northern frontier; (ii) distributions of genetically identical Attamyces clones over large areas (up to 81 000 km 2 , approx. the area of Ireland, Austria or Panama); (iii) admixture rates between Attamyces lineages that appear lower in northern than in tropical populations; and (iv) long-distance gene flow of Attamyces across a dispersal barrier for leaf-cutter ants (ocean between mainland North America and Cuba). The latter suggests that Attamyces fungi may occasionally disperse independently of the ants, contrary to the traditional assumption that Attamyces fungi depend entirely on leaf-cutter queens for dispersal. Peripheral populations in Argentina or at mid-elevation sites in the Andes may reveal additional regional variants in ant– Attamyces coevolution. Studies of such populations are most likely to inform models of coextinctions of obligate mutualistic partners that are doubly stressed by habitat marginality and by environmental change.

scholarly journals Transcriptome changes reveal the genetic mechanisms of the reproductive plasticity of workers in lower termites

BMC Genomics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenxu Ye ◽  
Humaira Rasheed ◽  
Yuehua Ran ◽  
Xiaojuan Yang ◽  
Lianxi Xing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Signal Transduction ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Mapk Pathway ◽  
Specific Expression ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Genetic Mechanisms ◽  
Ecological Success ◽  
Reproductive Plasticity

Abstract Background The reproductive plasticity of termite workers provides colonies with tremendous flexibility to respond to environmental changes, which is the basis for evolutionary and ecological success. Although it is known that all colony members share the same genetic background and that differences in castes are caused by differences in gene expression, the pattern of the specific expression of genes involved in the differentiation of workers into reproductives remains unclear. In this study, the isolated workers of Reticulitermes labralis developed into reproductives, and then comparative transcriptomes were used for the first time to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying the reproductive plasticity of workers. Results We identified 38,070 differentially expressed genes and found a pattern of gene expression involved in the differentiation of the workers into reproductives. 12, 543 genes were specifically upregulated in the isolated workers. Twenty-five signal transduction pathways classified into environmental information processing were related to the differentiation of workers into reproductives. Ras functions as a signalling switch regulates the reproductive plasticity of workers. The catalase gene which is related to longevity was up-regulated in reproductives. Conclusion We demonstrate that workers leaving the natal colony can induce the expression of stage-specific genes in the workers, which leads to the differentiation of workers into reproductives and suggests that the signal transduction along the Ras-MAPK pathway crucially controls the reproductive plasticity of the workers. This study also provides an important model for revealing the molecular mechanism of longevity changes.

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