| Title |
Reciprocal genomic evolution in the ant–fungus agricultural symbiosis
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Nature Communications, July 2016
|
| DOI | 10.1038/ncomms12233 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Sanne Nygaard, Haofu Hu, Cai Li, Morten Schiøtt, Zhensheng Chen, Zhikai Yang, Qiaolin Xie, Chunyu Ma, Yuan Deng, Rebecca B. Dikow, Christian Rabeling, David R. Nash, William T. Wcislo, Seán G. Brady, Ted R. Schultz, Guojie Zhang, Jacobus J. Boomsma |
| Abstract |
The attine ant-fungus agricultural symbiosis evolved over tens of millions of years, producing complex societies with industrial-scale farming analogous to that of humans. Here we document reciprocal shifts in the genomes and transcriptomes of seven fungus-farming ant species and their fungal cultivars. We show that ant subsistence farming probably originated in the early Tertiary (55-60 MYA), followed by further transitions to the farming of fully domesticated cultivars and leaf-cutting, both arising earlier than previously estimated. Evolutionary modifications in the ants include unprecedented rates of genome-wide structural rearrangement, early loss of arginine biosynthesis and positive selection on chitinase pathways. Modifications of fungal cultivars include loss of a key ligninase domain, changes in chitin synthesis and a reduction in carbohydrate-degrading enzymes as the ants gradually transitioned to functional herbivory. In contrast to human farming, increasing dependence on a single cultivar lineage appears to have been essential to the origin of industrial-scale ant agriculture. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 93 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 22 | 24% |
| United Kingdom | 5 | 5% |
| Germany | 5 | 5% |
| Spain | 4 | 4% |
| France | 3 | 3% |
| Denmark | 3 | 3% |
| Canada | 3 | 3% |
| Brazil | 2 | 2% |
| Peru | 1 | 1% |
| Other | 12 | 13% |
| Unknown | 33 | 35% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 52 | 56% |
| Scientists | 37 | 40% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 2% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 229 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 3 | 1% |
| Denmark | 2 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
| Germany | 1 | <1% |
| Greece | 1 | <1% |
| Switzerland | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 220 | 96% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 48 | 21% |
| Researcher | 34 | 15% |
| Student > Bachelor | 31 | 14% |
| Student > Master | 28 | 12% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 17 | 7% |
| Other | 34 | 15% |
| Unknown | 37 | 16% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 104 | 45% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 41 | 18% |
| Environmental Science | 7 | 3% |
| Immunology and Microbiology | 5 | 2% |
| Chemistry | 5 | 2% |
| Other | 23 | 10% |
| Unknown | 44 | 19% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 321. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 June 2023.
All research outputs
#105,370
of 25,507,011 outputs
Outputs from Nature Communications
#1,524
of 57,398 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,225
of 378,160 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Communications
#32
of 864 outputs
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