Ted R Schultz, Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo, Matthew P Kweskin, Michael W Lloyd, Bryn Dentinger, Pepijn W Kooij, Else C Vellinga, Stephen A Rehner, Andre Rodrigues, Quimi V Montoya, Hermógenes Fernández-Marín, Ana Ješovnik, Tuula Niskanen, Kare Liimatainen, Caio A Leal-Dutra, Scott E Solomon, Nicole M Gerardo, Cameron R Currie, Mauricio Bacci, Heraldo L Vasconcelos, Christian Rabeling, Brant C Faircloth, Vinson P Doyle
{"title":"The coevolution of fungus-ant agriculture.","authors":"Ted R Schultz, Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo, Matthew P Kweskin, Michael W Lloyd, Bryn Dentinger, Pepijn W Kooij, Else C Vellinga, Stephen A Rehner, Andre Rodrigues, Quimi V Montoya, Hermógenes Fernández-Marín, Ana Ješovnik, Tuula Niskanen, Kare Liimatainen, Caio A Leal-Dutra, Scott E Solomon, Nicole M Gerardo, Cameron R Currie, Mauricio Bacci, Heraldo L Vasconcelos, Christian Rabeling, Brant C Faircloth, Vinson P Doyle","doi":"10.1126/science.adn7179","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Fungus-farming ants cultivate multiple lineages of fungi for food, but, because fungal cultivar relationships are largely unresolved, the history of fungus-ant coevolution remains poorly known. We designed probes targeting >2000 gene regions to generate a dated evolutionary tree for 475 fungi and combined it with a similarly generated tree for 276 ants. We found that fungus-ant agriculture originated ~66 million years ago when the end-of-Cretaceous asteroid impact temporarily interrupted photosynthesis, causing global mass extinctions but favoring the proliferation of fungi. Subsequently, ~27 million years ago, one ancestral fungal cultivar population became domesticated, i.e., obligately mutualistic, when seasonally dry habitats expanded in South America, likely isolating the cultivar population from its free-living, wet forest-dwelling conspecifics. By revealing these and other major transitions in fungus-ant coevolution, our results clarify the historical processes that shaped a model system for nonhuman agriculture.</p>","PeriodicalId":21678,"journal":{"name":"Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":44.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Science","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adn7179","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/10/3 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Fungus-farming ants cultivate multiple lineages of fungi for food, but, because fungal cultivar relationships are largely unresolved, the history of fungus-ant coevolution remains poorly known. We designed probes targeting >2000 gene regions to generate a dated evolutionary tree for 475 fungi and combined it with a similarly generated tree for 276 ants. We found that fungus-ant agriculture originated ~66 million years ago when the end-of-Cretaceous asteroid impact temporarily interrupted photosynthesis, causing global mass extinctions but favoring the proliferation of fungi. Subsequently, ~27 million years ago, one ancestral fungal cultivar population became domesticated, i.e., obligately mutualistic, when seasonally dry habitats expanded in South America, likely isolating the cultivar population from its free-living, wet forest-dwelling conspecifics. By revealing these and other major transitions in fungus-ant coevolution, our results clarify the historical processes that shaped a model system for nonhuman agriculture.
期刊介绍:
Science is a leading outlet for scientific news, commentary, and cutting-edge research. Through its print and online incarnations, Science reaches an estimated worldwide readership of more than one million. Science’s authorship is global too, and its articles consistently rank among the world's most cited research.
Science serves as a forum for discussion of important issues related to the advancement of science by publishing material on which a consensus has been reached as well as including the presentation of minority or conflicting points of view. Accordingly, all articles published in Science—including editorials, news and comment, and book reviews—are signed and reflect the individual views of the authors and not official points of view adopted by AAAS or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated.
Science seeks to publish those papers that are most influential in their fields or across fields and that will significantly advance scientific understanding. Selected papers should present novel and broadly important data, syntheses, or concepts. They should merit recognition by the wider scientific community and general public provided by publication in Science, beyond that provided by specialty journals. Science welcomes submissions from all fields of science and from any source. The editors are committed to the prompt evaluation and publication of submitted papers while upholding high standards that support reproducibility of published research. Science is published weekly; selected papers are published online ahead of print.