Journal
FUNGAL ECOLOGY
Volume 23, Issue -, Pages 86-96Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.funeco.2016.07.002
Keywords
Ambrosiophilus; Ambrosiodmus; Flavodon ambrosius; Polyporales; Communality; Wood decay; Lignin degradation; Fungus farming; Symbiosis
Funding
- United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS)-SRS Coop agreement [14-CA-11330130-032]
- USDA-FS-FHP Coop agreement [12-CA-11420004-042]
- USDA [100007, 14-8130-0377-CA]
- National Science Foundation [DEB 1256968]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1256968] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Most wood-boring insects compete with wood decaying basidiomycetes for woody biomass. One Glade of ambrosia beetles gained access to rotten wood - an abundant resource unsuitable to most wood-boring insects - by evolving a farming-like mutualism with a white rot polypore. Here we show the mutualist of Ambrosiodmus/Ambrosiophilus, the polypore Flavodon ambrosius, is superior in lignocellulolytic capacity compared to Ascomycota ambrosia fungi and other white rot Basidiomycota. This mutualism facilitated the evolution of large, long-lived, communal colonies with overlapping generations and egg-laying by pre-dispersal progeny females. F. ambrosius resembles other white tot Polyporales in that it causes significant weight loss in wood decay assays and strong polyphenol oxidase reactions, indicative of lignin-modifying enzymes. The symbiosis is asymmetrical: there are many species of Ambrosiodmus and Ambrosiophilus but all use a single known species of Flavodon, which determines the ecological strategy of the entire insect Glade. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and British Mycological Society. All rights reserved.
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