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La coevolución de la agricultura de hongos y hormigas

Ted R Schultz¹, Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo¹, Matthew P Kweskin¹

¹National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.

Science (New York, N.Y.)

|October 3, 2024

Resumen

Las hormigas criadoras de hongos y sus parejas fúngicas se originaron hace 66 millones de años, posiblemente impulsadas por un impacto de asteroides. La domesticación ocurrió hace 27 millones de años debido a los cambios de hábitat, dando forma a esta antigua agricultura.

Área de la Ciencia:

Biología evolutiva
Ecología
Micología

Sus antecedentes:

Las hormigas criadoras de hongos (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) cultivan hongos para su sustento, lo que representa un ejemplo clave de agricultura no humana.
La historia evolutiva y la dinámica coevolucionaria entre las hormigas que cultivan hongos y sus cultivares de hongos siguen sin resolverse en gran medida.
Comprender estas relaciones es crucial para descifrar los orígenes y la diversificación de este mutualismo complejo.

Objetivo del estudio:

Para reconstruir los árboles evolutivos fechados de las hormigas criadoras de hongos y sus cultivares de hongos.
Investigar los orígenes históricos y las principales transiciones evolutivas en el mutualismo hongo-hormiga.
Para aclarar los procesos de coevolución que dieron forma a este sistema modelo de la agricultura.

Principales métodos:

Diseño de sondas moleculares dirigidas a más de 2000 regiones genéticas para el análisis filogenético.
Generó un árbol evolutivo fechado para 475 especies de hongos.
Generó un árbol evolutivo datado para 276 especies de hormigas.
Filogenias integradas de hormigas y hongos para inferir la historia de la coevolución.

Principales resultados:

La agricultura de hongos se originó hace aproximadamente 66 millones de años, coincidiendo con el evento de extinción masiva de finales del Cretácico.
La domesticación de un cultivo de hongos, que condujo a un mutualismo obligatorio, ocurrió hace unos 27 millones de años.
La sequía estacional del hábitat en América del Sur probablemente impulsó esta domesticación al aislar las poblaciones de hongos.

Conclusiones:

El estudio aclara la profunda historia evolutiva de la agricultura de hongos-hormigas, rastreando sus orígenes a los principales eventos geológicos y climáticos.
Se identifican y datan las transiciones clave, incluido el origen de la agricultura y la posterior domesticación.
Estos hallazgos proporcionan información crítica sobre los procesos históricos que dan forma a uno de los ejemplos más sofisticados de agricultura no humana.

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