Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 18, 2026

Microbiota of Attine Ants' Gardens: Visualizing a Microbial Landscape by Scanning Electron Microscopy
Published on: October 4, 2024
Nutritional Symbiosis Between Ants and Their Symbiotic Microbes
1Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
None:
Nutritional symbioses with microorganisms have profoundly shaped the evolutionary success of ants, enabling them to overcome dietary limitations and thrive across diverse ecological niches and trophic levels. These interactions are particularly crucial for ants with specialized diets, where microbial symbionts compensate for dietary imbalances by contributing to nitrogen metabolism, vitamin supplementation, and the catabolism of plant fibers and proteins. This review synthesizes recent advances in our understanding of ant-microbe symbioses, focusing on diversity, functional roles in host nutrition, and mechanisms of transmission of symbiotic microorganisms. Despite progress, most research has concentrated on a few ant genera, and further exploration of microbial roles in different ant morphs and life stages and across various ant species is needed. Expanding research to include a broader array of ant lineages and integrating genomic data with additional experimental data will provide deeper insights into the metabolic strategies that facilitate ant success across diverse ecological habitats.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Symbiosis
The Roles of Bacteria and Fungi in Plant Nutrition
Epiphytes, Parasites, and Carnivores
Microbial Nutrition
Microorganisms in Agriculture and Food industry
What is Natural Selection?

