Trade-offs in an ant–plant–fungus mutualism
| Autor: | Pierre-Jean G. Malé, Frédéric Petitclerc, Céline Leroy, Alain Dejean, Jérôme Orivel, Jérémie Lauth, Olivier Roux |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Ecologie des forêts de Guyane (UMR ECOFOG), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AgroParisTech-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université des Antilles (UA), Evolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud]), CNRS : programme Amazonie II, programme Convergence, La Région Guyane : Europe : FSE - projet Bi-Appli - 115/SGAR-DE/2011/052274, Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité : AAP-IN-2009-050, Investissement d'avenir : ANR-10-LABX-25-01 - ANR-10-LABX-0041, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud]), Université des Antilles (UA)-Université de Guyane (UG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-AgroParisTech-Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
species coexistence [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio] Foraging champignon 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Predation écologie végétale Myrmecophyte Animals Herbivory Symbiosis dispersal hirtella General Environmental Science Mutualism (biology) Herbivore General Immunology and Microbiology biology Ants Ecology Fungi Special Feature General Medicine Plants biology.organism_classification ANT French Guiana Hirtella Biological dispersal allomerus General Agricultural and Biological Sciences 010606 plant biology & botany |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Royal Society, The, 2017, 284 (1850), ⟨10.1098/rspb.2016.1679⟩ |
| ISSN: | 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
| Popis: | Species engaged in multiple, simultaneous mutualisms are subject to trade-offs in their mutualistic investment if the traits involved in each interaction are overlapping, which can lead to conflicts and affect the longevity of these associations. We investigate this issue via a tripartite mutualism involving an ant plant, two competing ant species and a fungus the ants cultivate to build galleries under the stems of their host plant to capture insect prey. The use of the galleries represents an innovative prey capture strategy compared with the more typical strategy of foraging on leaves. However, because of a limited worker force in their colonies, the prey capture behaviour of the ants results in a trade-off between plant protection (i.e. the ants patrol the foliage and attack intruders including herbivores) and ambushing prey in the galleries, which has a cascading effect on the fitness of all of the partners. The quantification of partners' traits and effects showed that the two ant species differed in their mutualistic investment. Less investment in the galleries (i.e. in fungal cultivation) translated into more benefits for the plant in terms of less herbivory and higher growth rates and vice versa. However, the greater vegetative growth of the plants did not produce a positive fitness effect for the better mutualistic ant species in terms of colony size and production of sexuals nor was the mutualist compensated by the wider dispersal of its queens. As a consequence, although the better ant mutualist is the one that provides more benefits to its host plant, its lower host–plant exploitation does not give this ant species a competitive advantage. The local coexistence of the ant species is thus fleeting and should eventually lead to the exclusion of the less competitive species. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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