Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 25 September 1998:
Vol. 281. no. 5385, pp. 2034 - 2038
DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5385.2034
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

The Evolution of Agriculture in Ants

Ulrich G. Mueller, * Stephen A. Rehner, Ted R. Schultz *

Cultivation of fungi for food by fungus-growing ants (Attini: Formicidae) originated about 50 million years ago. The subsequent evolutionary history of this agricultural symbiosis was inferred from phylogenetic and population-genetic patterns of 553 cultivars isolated from gardens of "primitive" fungus-growing ants. These patterns indicate that fungus-growing ants succeeded at domesticating multiple cultivars, that the ants are capable of switching to novel cultivars, that single ant species farm a diversity of cultivars, and that cultivars are shared occasionally between distantly related ant species, probably by lateral transfer between ant colonies.

U. G. Mueller, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama, and Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. S. A. Rehner, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama, and Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, San Juan 00931, Puerto Rico. T. R. Schultz, Department of Entomology MRC 165, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed at the University of Maryland (e-mail: um3{at}umail.umd.edu) or the Smithsonian Institution (e-mail: schultz{at}onyx.si.edu).

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Rethinking crop-disease management in fungus-growing ants.
J. J. Boomsma and D. K. Aanen (2009)
PNAS 106, 17611-17612
   Full Text »    PDF »
Mycelial carton galleries of Azteca brevis (Formicidae) as a multi-species network.
V. E. Mayer and H. Voglmayr (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 3265-3273
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Do lichens domesticate photobionts like farmers domesticate crops? Evidence from a previously unrecognized lineage of filamentous cyanobacteria.
R. Lucking, J. D. Lawrey, M. Sikaroodi, P. M. Gillevet, J. L. Chaves, H. J. M. Sipman, and F. Bungartz (2009)
Am. J. Botany 96, 1409-1418
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
No sex in fungus-farming ants or their crops.
A. G. Himler, E. J. Caldera, B. C. Baer, H. Fernandez-Marin, and U. G. Mueller (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 2611-2616
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Free-living fungal symbionts (Lepiotaceae) of fungus-growing ants (Attini: Formicidae).
T. L. Vo, U. G. Mueller, and A. S. Mikheyev (2009)
Mycologia 101, 206-210
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture.
T. R. Schultz and S. G. Brady (2008)
PNAS 105, 5435-5440
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A breakthrough innovation in animal evolution.
U. G. Mueller and C. Rabeling (2008)
PNAS 105, 5287-5288
   Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Specificity and transmission mosaic of ant nest-wall fungi.
B. C. Schlick-Steiner, F. M. Steiner, H. Konrad, B. Seifert, E. Christian, K. Moder, C. Stauffer, and R. H. Crozier (2008)
PNAS 105, 940-943
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Symbiotic complexity: discovery of a fifth symbiont in the attine ant-microbe symbiosis.
A. E.F Little and C. R Currie (2007)
Biol Lett 3, 501-504
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Low host-pathogen specificity in the leaf-cutting ant-microbe symbiosis.
S. J Taerum, M. J Cafaro, A. E.F Little, T. R Schultz, and C. R Currie (2007)
Proc R Soc B 274, 1971-1978
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Major clades of Agaricales: a multilocus phylogenetic overview.
P. B. Matheny, J. M. Curtis, V. Hofstetter, M. C. Aime, J.-M. Moncalvo, Z.-W. Ge, Z.-L. Yang, J. C. Slot, J. F. Ammirati, T. J. Baroni, et al. (2006)
Mycologia 98, 982-995
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Cryptic sex and many-to-one coevolution in the fungus-growing ant symbiosis.
A. S. Mikheyev, U. G. Mueller, and P. Abbot (2006)
PNAS 103, 10702-10706
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
As you reap, so shall you sow: coupling of harvesting and inoculating stabilizes the mutualism between termites and fungi.
D. K Aanen (2006)
Biol Lett 2, 209-212
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Cooperation, conflict, and coevolution in the attine ant-fungus symbiosis.
N. J. Mehdiabadi, B. Hughes, and U. G. Mueller (2006)
Behav. Ecol. 17, 291-296
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Episymbiotic microbes as food and defence for marine isopods: unique symbioses in a hostile environment.
N. Lindquist, P. H Barber, and J. B Weisz (2005)
Proc R Soc B 272, 1209-1216
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mutualistic Fungi Control Crop Diversity in Fungus-Growing Ants.
M. Poulsen and J. J. Boomsma (2005)
Science 307, 741-744
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mitosis in the yeast phase of the basidiomycetes Bensingtonia yuccicola and Stilbum vulgare and its phylogenetic implications.
D. J. McLaughlin, R. W. Hanson Jr, E. M. Frieders, E. C. Swann, and L. J. Szabo (2004)
Am. J. Botany 91, 808-815
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Symbiont choice in a fungus-growing ant (Attini, Formicidae).
U. G. Mueller, J. Poulin, and R. M. M. Adams (2004)
Behav. Ecol. 15, 357-364
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Fungal farming in a snail.
B. R. Silliman and S. Y. Newell (2003)
PNAS 100, 15643-15648
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Population genetics and spatial structure of the fairy ring fungus Marasmius oreades in a Norwegian sand dune ecosystem.
E. Abesha, G. Caetano-Anolles, and K. Hoiland (2003)
Mycologia 95, 1021-1031
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ancient Tripartite Coevolution in the Attine Ant-Microbe Symbiosis.
C. R. Currie, B. Wong, A. E. Stuart, T. R. Schultz, S. A. Rehner, U. G. Mueller, G.-H. Sung, J. W. Spatafora, and N. A. Straus (2003)
Science 299, 386-388
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Random amplified polymorphic DNA markers reveal genetic variation in the symbiotic fungus of leaf-cutting ants.
K. R. Doherty, E. W. Zweifel, N. C. Elde, M. J. McKone, and S. G. Zweifel (2003)
Mycologia 95, 19-23
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Fungus-farming insects: Multiple origins and diverse evolutionary histories.
U. G. Mueller and N. Gerardo (2002)
PNAS 99, 15247-15249
   Full Text »    PDF »
The evolution of fungus-growing termites and their mutualistic fungal symbionts.
D. K. Aanen, P. Eggleton, C. Rouland-Lefevre, T. Guldberg-Froslev, S. Rosendahl, and J. J. Boomsma (2002)
PNAS 99, 14887-14892
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Biosemiotics and Phylogenesis of Culture.
D. Lestel (2002)
Social Science Information 41, 35-68
   Abstract »    PDF »
Waste management in the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica.
A. G. Hart and F. L. W. Ratnieks (2002)
Behav. Ecol. 13, 224-231
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Algal switching among lichen symbioses.
M. D. Piercey-Normore and P. T. DePriest (2001)
Am. J. Botany 88, 1490-1498
   Full Text »
The agricultural pathology of ant fungus gardens.
C. R. Currie, U. G. Mueller, and D. Malloch (1999)
PNAS 96, 7998-8002
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)