Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 6, 2026
10:11
Collection and Long-Term Maintenance of Leaf-Cutting Ants (Atta) in Laboratory Conditions
Published on: August 30, 2022
Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture
1Department of Entomology and Laboratories of Analytical Biology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA. schultzt@si.edu
Summary
Fungus-growing ants evolved agriculture ~50 million years ago. Subsequent evolution led to five distinct agricultural systems, including leaf-cutter ants, highlighting the diverse symbiotic relationships in nature.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Symbiotic Relationships
- Myrmecology
Background:
- Agriculture is a rare symbiotic trait, observed in only four animal groups: humans, bark beetles, termites, and ants.
- Fungus-growing ants (tribe Attini) represent the most extensively studied non-human agriculturalists, exhibiting five distinct agricultural systems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To reconstruct the major evolutionary transitions leading to the five distinct agricultural systems in fungus-growing ants.
- To establish a comprehensive molecular phylogeny for the tribe Attini, incorporating fossil calibration.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a fossil-calibrated, multiple-gene molecular phylogeny.
- Incorporated the full taxonomic diversity of the fungus-growing ant tribe Attini.
- Analyzed evolutionary transitions between agricultural systems.
Main Results:
- The earliest ant agriculture, cultivating diverse fungi (Leucocoprineae), originated ~50 million years ago in the Neotropics.
- Three new agricultural systems, each with distinct fungal cultivars, emerged from the ancestral system over the last 30 million years.
- Leaf-cutter ant agriculture, cultivating a single fungal species, is a recent (~8-12 million years ago) derivation.
Conclusions:
- Ant agriculture evolved through sequential transitions, diversifying into five distinct systems.
- Transitional ant species offer insights into the ecological and behavioral evolution of ant agriculture.
- Fossil-calibrated phylogenetics is crucial for understanding the deep evolutionary history of complex symbiotic systems.
Related Concept Videos
02:35What is Evolutionary History?
Scientists record evolutionary history by analyzing fossil, morphological, and genetic data. The fossil record documents the history of life on Earth and provides evidence for evolution. However, both fossil and living organisms offer evidence that outlines Earth’s evolutionary history.Phylogenetic trees illustrate the evolutionary relationships among these organisms. Scientists infer organisms’ common ancestry by evaluating shared morphological and genetic characteristics. Together, the fossil...
02:22The Colonization of Land
Changes in the environment of the early Earth drove the evolution of organisms. As prokaryotic organisms in the oceans began to photosynthesize, they produced oxygen. Eventually, oxygen saturated the oceans and entered the air, resulting in an increase in atmospheric oxygen concentration, known as the oxygen revolution approximately 2.3 billion years ago. Therefore, organisms that could use oxygen for cellular respiration had an advantage. More than 1.5 years ago, eukaryotic cells and...
00:53Migration
Migration is long-range, seasonal movement from one region or habitat to another. This common strategy, carried out by many different organisms around the world, is an adaptive response that typically corresponds to changes in an organism’s environment, like resource availability or climate. Migrations can involve huge groups of thousands of animals as well as single individuals traveling alone and can range from thousands of kilometers to just a few hundred meters.
01:24Evolution of New Traits in Microbes
Microorganisms evolve rapidly due to their large population sizes and short generation times, often exhibiting measurable changes within days under laboratory conditions. Natural selection acts on standing genetic variation, enabling the retention and amplification of beneficial traits that confer fitness advantages in changing environments.Adaptive Pigment Regulation in RhodobacterIn Rhodobacter, a genus of purple non-sulfur bacteria, light-harvesting pigments such as bacteriochlorophyll and...
02:31Synteny and Evolution
John H. Renwick first coined the term “synteny” in 1971, which refers to the genes present on the same chromosomes, even if they are not genetically linked. The species with common ancestry tend to show conserved syntenic regions. Therefore, the concept of synteny is nowadays used to describe the evolutionary relationship between species.
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral chromosome underwent...
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral chromosome underwent...
00:48Optimal Foraging
How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.