Microbial Community Structure of Leaf-Cutter Ant Fungus Gardens and Refuse Dumps

摘要: Background Leaf-cutter ants use fresh plant material to grow a mutualistic fungus that serves as the ants' primary food source. Within gardens, various compounds are metabolized and transformed into nutrients suitable for ant consumption. This symbiotic association produces large amount of refuse consisting primarily partly degraded material. A leaf-cutter colony is thus divided two spatially chemically distinct environments together represent biomass degradation gradient. Little known about microbial community structure in gardens dumps or variation between lab field colonies. Methodology/principal findings Using membrane lipid analysis variety metrics, we assessed compared microbiota from both laboratory-maintained field-collected We found contained diverse consistent microbes, dominated by Gram-negative bacteria, particularly gamma-Proteobacteria Bacteroidetes. These were across well host taxa. In contrast, enriched Gram-positive anaerobic bacteria. Broad-scale clustering analyses revealed relatedness samples reflected system component (gardens/dumps) rather than source (lab/field). At finer scales clustered according Conclusions/significance Here report first comparative Our work reveals presence communities: one garden other dump. Though find some effect on structure, our data indicate consistently associated microbes within dumps. Substrate composition appear be most important factor structuring communities. results suggest resident communities shaped gradient created behavior, specifically their fungiculture waste management.