Bacterial Diversity in Leaf-Cutter Ant Species: Host-Microbe Interactions and Environmental Effects
Alexandra Gianaris, Manuela O. Ramalho, Amanda A. de Oliveira, Maria Santina de Castro Morini, Cintia Martins, Odair C. Bueno · 2026
Read Bacterial Diversity in Leaf-Cutter Ant Species: Host-Microbe Interactions and Environmental Effects by Alexandra Gianaris, Manuela O. Ramalho, Amanda A. de Oliveira, Maria Santina de Castro Morini, Cintia Martins, Odair C. Bueno (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13260043.txt.
Description
Alexandra Gianaris leads a 2026 study of bacterial communities living on and in leaf-cutter ants of the genus Atta. These ants farm fungi for food and carry diverse bacteria, but the reasons for that diversity are unclear. The team sequenced a bacterial marker gene from whole worker ants. They compared four dominant Atta species and, within one species, ants kept in the laboratory, ants treated with pesticide, and the ants' fungal garden partner.
Bacterial communities differed significantly among the four Atta species. They also differed between laboratory conditions, pesticide treatment, and the fungal garden of the most studied species. Surprisingly, bacteria of laboratory-kept ants were not significantly different from those of pesticide-treated ants. The authors say that finding should prompt a rethink of standard research methods for these ants, since lab keeping alone seems to reshape their microbes.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Alexandra Gianaris, Manuela O. Ramalho, Amanda A. de Oliveira, Maria Santina de Castro Morini, Cintia Martins, Odair C. Bueno |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 63669 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |