Symbiosis, dysbiosis and the impact of horizontal exchange on bacterial microbiomes in higher fungus-gardening ants.

ABSTRACT: Advances in our understanding of symbiotic stability have demonstrated that microorganisms are key to understanding the homeostasis of obligate symbioses. Fungus-gardening ants are excellent model systems for exploring how microorganisms may be involved in symbiotic homeostasis as the host and symbionts are macroscopic and can be easily experimentally manipulated. Their coevolutionary history has been well-studied; examinations of which have depicted broad clade-to-clade specificity between the ants and fungus. Few studies hitherto have addressed the roles of microbiomes in stabilizing these associations. Here, we quantified changes in microbiome structure as a result of experimentally induced horizontal exchange of symbionts. This was done by performing cross-fostering experiments forcing

SUBMITTER: Bringhurst B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10853281 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature