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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2009, p. 4324-4332, Vol. 75, No. 13
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00455-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Bacterial Associates of Arboreal Ants and Their Putative Functions in an Obligate Ant-Plant Mutualism{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Sascha Eilmus1 and Martin Heil1,2*

Department of General Botany-Plant Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, D-45117 Essen, Germany,1 Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, CINVESTAV—Irapuato, Km. 9.6 Libramiento Norte, Carretera Irapuato-León, 36821 Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico2

Received 24 February 2009/ Accepted 5 May 2009

Bacterial communities are highly diverse and have great ecological importance. In the present study, we used an in silico analysis of terminal restriction fragments (tRF) to characterize the bacterial community of the plant ant Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus. This species is an obligate inhabitant of Acacia myrmecophytes and feeds exclusively on plant-derived food sources. Ants are the dominant insect group in tropical rain forests. Associations of ants with microbes, which contribute particularly to the ants’ nitrogen nutrition, could allow these insects to live on mostly or entirely plant-based diets and could thus contribute to the explanation of the high abundances that are reached by tropical ants. We found tRF patterns representing at least 30 prokaryotic taxa, of which the Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Planctomycetes, Proteobacteria, and Spirochaetes comprised 93%. Because most bacterial taxa were found in all ant-derived samples studied and because the bacteria detected on the ants’ host plant revealed little overlap with this community, we regard our results as reliably representing the bacterial community that is associated with P. ferrugineus. Genera with a likely function as ant symbionts were Burkholderia, Pantoea, Weissella, and several members of the Enterobacteriaceae. The presence of these and various other groups was confirmed via independent PCR and cultivation approaches. Many of the bacteria that we detected belong to purportedly N-fixing taxa. Bacteria may represent important further partners in ant-plant mutualisms, and their influences on ant nutrition can contribute to the extraordinary abundance and evolutionary success of tropical arboreal ants.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, CINVESTAV—Irapuato, Km. 9.6 Libramiento Norte, Carretera Irapuato-León, 36821 Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. Phone: 52 462 6239657. Fax: 52 462 6239650. E-mail: mheil{at}ira.cinvestav.mx

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 15 May 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2009, p. 4324-4332, Vol. 75, No. 13
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00455-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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