The Genome Sequence of the Leaf-Cutter Ant Atta cephalotes Reveals Insights into Its Obligate Symbiotic Lifestyle
- G. Suen, C. Teiling, C. Currie
- BiologyPLoS Genetics
- 1 February 2011
Following recent reports of genome sequences from other insects that engage in symbioses with beneficial microbes, the A. cephalotes genome provides new insights into the symbiotic lifestyle of this ant and advances the understanding of host–microbe symbioss.
No sex in fungus-farming ants or their crops
- A. Himler, E. Caldera, B. Baer, H. Fernández‐Marín, U. Mueller
- BiologyProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological…
- 22 July 2009
The first case of complete asexuality in ants, the fungus-growing ant Mycocepurus smithii, where queens reproduce asexually but workers are sterile is reported, which is doubly enigmatic because the clonal colonies of M. smithII societies of clonal females provide a unique system to test theories of parent–offspring conflict and reproductive policing in social insects.
Effects of colonization history and landscape structure on genetic variation within and among threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations in a single watershed
- E. Caldera, D. Bolnick
- Environmental Science
- 2008
Novel evidence is presented that post-glacial colonization occurred gradually over a significant period of time, rather than a single rapid invasion into all lakes, to confirm expectations that landscape features such as stream gradient and stream branching structure strongly influence patterns of genetic divergence.
Insect Symbioses: A Case Study of Past, Present, and Future Fungus-Growing Ant Research*
- E. Caldera, M. Poulsen, G. Suen, C. Currie
- BiologyEnvironmental Entomology
- 25 February 2009
The fungus-growing ant symbiosis serves as a particularly useful model system for studying insect-microbe symbioses, because, to date, it contains four well-characterized microbial symbionts, including mutualists and parasites that encompass micro-fungi, macro-funki, yeasts, and bacteria.
Antibiotic and Antimalarial Quinones from Fungus-Growing Ant-Associated Pseudonocardia sp.
- Gavin Carr, E. Derbyshire, E. Caldera, C. Currie, J. Clardy
- BiologyJournal of Natural Products
- 1 October 2012
Three new members of the angucycline class of antibiotics, pseudonocardones A–C (1–3), along with the known antibiotics 6-deoxy-8-O-methylrabelomycin (4) and X-14881 E (5) have been isolated from the…
The Population Structure of Antibiotic-Producing Bacterial Symbionts of Apterostigma dentigerum Ants: Impacts of Coevolution and Multipartite Symbiosis
- E. Caldera, C. Currie
- BiologyAmerican Naturalist
- 24 September 2012
The population dynamics of symbiotic Pseudonocardia are more consistent with a specialized mutualistic association than with recently proposed models of low specificity and frequent horizontal acquisition.
Labile associations between fungus-growing ant cultivars and their garden pathogens
- N. Gerardo, E. Caldera
- BiologyThe ISME Journal
- 1 September 2007
Comparisons of genetic population structure of the cultivated fungi of the fungus-growing ant Apterostigma dentigerum and of the cultivar-attacking fungus, Escovopsis, are compared to determine whether these microbial associations have evolved or are likely to evolve genotype–genotype specialization.
Local Adaptation of Bacterial Symbionts within a Geographic Mosaic of Antibiotic Coevolution
- E. Caldera, M. Chevrette, B. McDonald, C. Currie
- BiologyApplied and Environmental Microbiology
- 1 November 2019
Key GMC predictions in an antibiotic-producing bacterial symbiont that protects the crops of neotropical fungus-farming ants (Apterostigma dentigerum) from a specialized pathogen (genus Escovopsis) are tested and show that this multipartite symbiotic system conforms to the GMC and demonstrates that this theory is applicable in both microbes and indirect Symbiont-symbiont interactions.
Evidence for asymmetric migration load in a pair of ecologically divergent stickleback populations
- D. Bolnick, E. Caldera, B. Matthews
- Biology, Environmental Science
- 1 June 2008
High gene flow appears to constrain adaptive divergence in a pair of three-spine stickleback populations in adjoining but unequal-sized lake basins in British Columbia, and fish in the smaller lake basin are subject to persistent directional selection towards a more benthic phenotype, whereas the larger population exhibits no significant selection.
Biogeography and Microscale Diversity Shape the Biosynthetic Potential of Fungus-growing Ant-associated Pseudonocardia
- B. McDonald, M. Chevrette, C. Currie
- BiologybioRxiv
- 10 February 2019
Analysis of genetic diversity and biosynthetic potential in 46 strains isolated from ant colonies in a 20km transect near Barro Colorado Island in Panama revealed several distinct bacterial populations matching ant host geographic distribution.
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