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Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages
The association between the myrmecophyte Triplaris and ants of the genus Pseudomyrmex is an often-reported example of mutualism in the Neotropics. The ants colonize the hollow stems of their hosts, and in exchange, the plants benefit from a reduced degree of herbivory. The previous studies have show...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5397449/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28479608 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00040-017-0542-2 |
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author | Torres, María Fernanda Sanchez, Adriana |
author_facet | Torres, María Fernanda Sanchez, Adriana |
author_sort | Torres, María Fernanda |
collection | PubMed |
description | The association between the myrmecophyte Triplaris and ants of the genus Pseudomyrmex is an often-reported example of mutualism in the Neotropics. The ants colonize the hollow stems of their hosts, and in exchange, the plants benefit from a reduced degree of herbivory. The previous studies have shown that workers can discriminate their host from other plants, including a closely related species. Little is known about how queens locate their host during the colonization process, but it has been suggested that host recognition is mediated by volatiles. Since queens of Pseudomyrmex mordax colonize their hosts during the seedling stage, we hypothesized that queens would discriminate leaves of seedlings from adult plants. To evaluate our hypothesis, we used a two-sided olfactometer, to test the preference of queens towards different leaf and plant ages of Triplaris americana. Virgin queens of Pseudomyrmex mordax preferred seedlings over adult plants, as well as plant leaves over empty controls, showing no discrimination for leaf age. Our results suggest that the volatiles virgin queens recognize are either produced or are more abundant at the early growing stage of the host when colonization is crucial for the host's survival. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5397449 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-53974492017-05-04 Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages Torres, María Fernanda Sanchez, Adriana Insectes Soc Research Article The association between the myrmecophyte Triplaris and ants of the genus Pseudomyrmex is an often-reported example of mutualism in the Neotropics. The ants colonize the hollow stems of their hosts, and in exchange, the plants benefit from a reduced degree of herbivory. The previous studies have shown that workers can discriminate their host from other plants, including a closely related species. Little is known about how queens locate their host during the colonization process, but it has been suggested that host recognition is mediated by volatiles. Since queens of Pseudomyrmex mordax colonize their hosts during the seedling stage, we hypothesized that queens would discriminate leaves of seedlings from adult plants. To evaluate our hypothesis, we used a two-sided olfactometer, to test the preference of queens towards different leaf and plant ages of Triplaris americana. Virgin queens of Pseudomyrmex mordax preferred seedlings over adult plants, as well as plant leaves over empty controls, showing no discrimination for leaf age. Our results suggest that the volatiles virgin queens recognize are either produced or are more abundant at the early growing stage of the host when colonization is crucial for the host's survival. Springer International Publishing 2017-02-06 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5397449/ /pubmed/28479608 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00040-017-0542-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Torres, María Fernanda Sanchez, Adriana Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages |
title | Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages |
title_full | Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages |
title_fullStr | Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages |
title_full_unstemmed | Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages |
title_short | Neotropical ant-plant Triplaris americana attracts Pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages |
title_sort | neotropical ant-plant triplaris americana attracts pseudomyrmex mordax ant queens during seedling stages |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5397449/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28479608 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00040-017-0542-2 |
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