Chance or Necessity-The Fungi Co-Occurring with Formica polyctena Ants.

ABSTRACT: Studies on carton nesting ants and domatia-dwelling ants have shown that ant-fungi interactions may be much more common and widespread than previously thought. Until now, studies focused predominantly on parasitic and mutualistic fungi-ant interactions occurring mostly in the tropics, neglecting less-obvious interactions involving the fungi common in ants' surroundings in temperate climates. In our study, we characterized the mycobiota of the surroundings of Formica polyctena ants by identifying nearly 600 fungal colonies that were isolated externally from the bodies of F. polyctena workers. The ants were collected from mounds found in northern and central Poland. Isolated fungi were assigned to 20 genera via molecular identification (ITS rDNA barcoding). Among these, Peni

SUBMITTER: Siedlecki I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7997191 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature