%0 Journal Article %J Proc Biol Sci %D 2002 %T Tetraponera ants have gut symbionts related to nitrogen-fixing root-nodule bacteria. %A Steven Van Borm %A Buschinger, Alfred %A Boomsma, Jacobus J %A Billen, Johan %K Animals %K ants %K bacteria %K Female %K Intestines %K Male %K Nitrogen Fixation %K Phylogeny %K RNA, Bacterial %K RNA, Ribosomal, 16S %K symbiosis %X

Some Tetraponera ants (Formicidae, Pseudomyrmecinae) subsist almost entirely on amino acid deficient honeydew secretions of pseudococcids and harbour a dense aggregation of bacterial symbionts in a unique pouch-shaped organ at the junction of the midgut and the intestine. The organ is surrounded by a network of intruding tracheae and Malpighian tubules, suggesting that these bacteria are involved in the oxidative recycling of nitrogen-rich metabolic waste. We have examined the ultrastructure of these bacteria and have amplified, cloned and sequenced ribosomal RNA-encoding genes, showing that the ant pouch contains a series of close relatives of Flavobacteria and Rhizobium, Methylobacterium, Burkholderia and Pseudomonas nitrogen-fixing root-nodule bacteria. We argue that pouch bacteria have been repeatedly 'domesticated' by the ants as nitrogen-recycling endosymbionts. This ant-associated community of mutualists is, to our knowledge, the first finding of symbionts related to root-nodule bacteria in animals.

%B Proc Biol Sci %V 269 %P 2023-7 %8 2002 Oct 07 %G eng %N 1504 %1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12396501?dopt=Abstract %R 10.1098/rspb.2002.2101