2023/10/02 by Veronika Mayer, Hermann Voglmayr, Rumsaïs Blatrix +2 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Plant Parasitism and Resistance #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.3389/ffunb.2023.1213997
openalex publication_date 2023/10/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
Associations between fungi and ants living in mutualistic relationship with plants ("plant-ants") have been known for a long time. However, only in recent years has the mutualistic nature, frequency, and geographical extent of associations between tropical arboreal ants with fungi of the ascomycete order Chaetothyriales and Capnodiales (belonging to the so-called "Black Fungi") become clear. Two groups of arboreal ants displaying different nesting strategies are associated with ascomycete fungi: carton-building ants that construct nest walls and galleries on stems, branches or below leaves which are overgrown by fungal hyphae, and plant-ants that make their nests inside living plants (myrmecophytes) in plant provided cavities (domatia) where ants cultivate fungi in small delimited "patches". In this review we summarize the current knowledge about these unsuspected plant-ant-fungus interactions. The data suggest, that at least some of these ant-associated fungi seem to have coevolved with ants over a long period of time and have developed specific adaptations to this lifestyle.