Herbivorous turtle ants obtain essential nutrients from a conserved nitrogen-recycling gut microbiome

Yi Hu (), Jon G. Sanders, Piotr Łukasik, Catherine L. D’Amelio, John S. Millar, David R. Vann, Yemin Lan, Justin A. Newton, Mark Schotanus, Daniel J. C. Kronauer, Naomi E. Pierce, Corrie S. Moreau, John T. Wertz, Philipp Engel and Jacob A. Russell
Additional contact information
Yi Hu: Drexel University
Jon G. Sanders: Harvard University
Piotr Łukasik: Drexel University
Catherine L. D’Amelio: Drexel University
John S. Millar: University of Pennsylvania
David R. Vann: University of Pennsylvania
Yemin Lan: Drexel University
Justin A. Newton: Drexel University
Mark Schotanus: Calvin College
Daniel J. C. Kronauer: The Rockefeller University
Naomi E. Pierce: Harvard University
Corrie S. Moreau: Field Museum of Natural History
John T. Wertz: Calvin College
Philipp Engel: University of Lausanne
Jacob A. Russell: Drexel University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Nitrogen acquisition is a major challenge for herbivorous animals, and the repeated origins of herbivory across the ants have raised expectations that nutritional symbionts have shaped their diversification. Direct evidence for N provisioning by internally housed symbionts is rare in animals; among the ants, it has been documented for just one lineage. In this study we dissect functional contributions by bacteria from a conserved, multi-partite gut symbiosis in herbivorous Cephalotes ants through in vivo experiments, metagenomics, and in vitro assays. Gut bacteria recycle urea, and likely uric acid, using recycled N to synthesize essential amino acids that are acquired by hosts in substantial quantities. Specialized core symbionts of 17 studied Cephalotes species encode the pathways directing these activities, and several recycle N in vitro. These findings point to a highly efficient N economy, and a nutritional mutualism preserved for millions of years through the derived behaviors and gut anatomy of Cephalotes ants.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03357-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03357-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03357-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().