Disease management in two sympatric Apterostigma fungus-growing ants for controlling the parasitic fungus Escovopsis.

ABSTRACT: Antagonistic interactions between host and parasites are often embedded in networks of interacting species, in which hosts may be attacked by competing parasites species, and parasites may infect more than one host species. To better understand the evolution of host defenses and parasite counterdefenses in the context of a multihost, multiparasite system, we studied two sympatric species, of congeneric fungus-growing ants (Attini) species and their symbiotic fungal cultivars, which are attacked by multiple morphotypes of parasitic fungi in the genus, Escovopsis. To assess whether closely related ant species and their cultured fungi are evolving defenses against the same or different parasitic strains, we characterized Escovopsis that were isolated from colonies of sympatric <

SUBMITTER: Christopher Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8207340 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature