Symbiont recruitment versus ant-symbiont co-evolution in the attine ant-microbe symbiosis
Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 23, 2026

Microbiota of Attine Ants' Gardens: Visualizing a Microbial Landscape by Scanning Electron Microscopy
Published on: October 4, 2024
1Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. umueller@mail.utexas.edu
Abstract:
The symbiosis between fungus-farming ants (Attini, Formicidae), their cultivated fungi, garden-infecting Escovopsis pathogens, and Pseudonocardia bacteria on the ant integument has been popularized as an example of ant-Escovopsis-Pseudonocardia co-evolution. Recent research could not verify earlier conclusions regarding antibiotic-secreting, integumental Pseudonocardia that co-evolve to specifically suppress Escovopsis disease in an ancient co-evolutionary arms-race. Rather than long-term association with a single, co-evolving Pseudonocardia strain, attine ants accumulate complex, dynamic biofilms on their integument and in their gardens. Emerging views are that the integumental biofilms protect the ants primarily against ant diseases, whereas garden biofilms protect primarily against garden diseases; attine ants selectively recruit ('screen in') microbes into their biofilms; and the biofilms of ants and gardens serve diverse functions beyond disease-suppression.
Related Concept Videos
Microbial Interactions: Cooperation
Symbiosis
Microbial Interactions: Mutualism
Microbial Interactions: Parasitism
Microbial Interactions: Predation
Transduction

