Disease management in two sympatric Apterostigma fungus-growing ants for controlling the parasitic fungus Escovopsis

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Yuliana Christopher, Instituto De Investigaciones Cientificas Y Servicios De Alta Tecnologia, INDICASAT-AIP; William T Wcislo, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute; Sergio Martínez-Luis, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP); William OH Hughes, University of Sussex; Nicole Gerardo, Emory University; Hermógenes Fernández-Marín, Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Servicios de Alta Tecnología (INDICASAT AIP)
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-06-01
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7379
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Ecology and Evolution
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 11
• Start Page: 6041
• End Page: 6052
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by a doctoral fellowship from SENACYT and SNI grant to Y.C., International SENACYT grant 09‐038, IDDS 200 grant, SNI grant, and general research funds from INDICASAT‐AIP to H.F.M., NSF DEB‐1754595 to N.M.G, and STRI to W.T.W.
• Keywords: parasitic fungus; Disease management
• Research Categories: Biology, General

Abstract

Antagonistic interactions between host and parasites are often embedded in networks of interacting species, in which hosts may be attacked by competing parasites species, and parasites may infect more than one host species. To better understand the evolution of host defenses and parasite counterdefenses in the context of a multihost, multiparasite system, we studied two sympatric species, of congeneric fungus-growing ants (Attini) species and their symbiotic fungal cultivars, which are attacked by multiple morphotypes of parasitic fungi in the genus, Escovopsis. To assess whether closely related ant species and their cultured fungi are evolving defenses against the same or different parasitic strains, we characterized Escovopsis that were isolated from colonies of sympatric Apterostigma dentigerum and A. pilosum. We assessed in vitro and in vivo interactions of these parasites with their hosts. While the ant cultivars are parasitized by similar Escovopsis spp., the frequency of infection by these pathogens differs between the two ant species. The ability of the host fungi to suppress Escovopsis growth, as well as ant defensive responses toward the parasites, differs depending on the parasite strain and on the host ant species.