Analysis of bacterial and fungal microbiomes in a newly discovered ant-fungal symbiosis

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

9:00 AM – 9:12 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 118

Presenting Author(s)

JS

Jon N. Seal

Associate Professor
University of Texas
Tyler, Texas

Co-Author(s)

Katrin Kellner (she/her/hers)

Associate Professor
University of Texas
Tyler, Texas
WT

Walter Tschinkel

Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida

Although not a true fungus-gardening ant, the ant Pheidole adrianoi appears to be cultivating a mycorrhizal fungus inside their nest chambers. The fungus is tentatively identified to the genus Coenococcum, which is a common ectomycorrhizal fungus in Florida pine forests. Pheidole adrianoi nests among pine trees with nests as much as 70 cm deep. Fungal mats of sclerotia (a compact mass of hardened mycelia) can be found in all nest chambers and ants will reconstruct a mat in the lab when provided with sclerotia. Thus, it would appear that the fungal mat is important enough for the ants to collect thousands of sclerotia and to maintain the mats, but it is unclear what forms the basis of the interaction and what benefit the mats may have to the ants. Since microbiome structure usually reflects function and many aspects of an organism’s biology, describing a microbiome can be used to infer aspects of life history. Specifically, we hypothesize that the fungus associated with Pheidole adrianoi serves 1) a nutritional, 2) a defensive, or 3) non-symbiotic structural role. We will report in this talk the first analyses of the fungal and bacterial microbiomes associated with these ants and their fungal mats and hope to learn more about why P. adrionoi and Coenococcum choose to associate with one another.