Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8384322 | Fungal Ecology | 2016 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Most wood-boring insects compete with wood decaying basidiomycetes for woody biomass. One clade of ambrosia beetles gained access to rotten wood - an abundant resource unsuitable to most wood-boring insects - by evolving a farming-like mutualism with a white rot polypore. Here we show the mutualist of Ambrosiodmus/Ambrosiophilus, the polypore Flavodon ambrosius, is superior in lignocellulolytic capacity compared to Ascomycota ambrosia fungi and other white rot Basidiomycota. This mutualism facilitated the evolution of large, long-lived, communal colonies with overlapping generations and egg-laying by pre-dispersal progeny females. F. ambrosius resembles other white rot Polyporales in that it causes significant weight loss in wood decay assays and strong polyphenol oxidase reactions, indicative of lignin-modifying enzymes. The symbiosis is asymmetrical: there are many species of Ambrosiodmus and Ambrosiophilus but all use a single known species of Flavodon, which determines the ecological strategy of the entire insect clade.
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Authors
Matthew T. Kasson, Kristen L. Wickert, Cameron M. Stauder, Angie M. Macias, Matthew C. Berger, D. Rabern Simmons, Dylan P.G. Short, David B. DeVallance, Jiri Hulcr,