A large international team of researchers has conducted an exhaustive study to trace the relationships among a vast collection of fungi and ants, shedding light on how this form of agriculture evolved. This study reveals that the cooperation between ants and their crops likely began after the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, a time when fungi thrived due to the scarcity of other life forms.
Description: Ants working symbiotically with fungi, showcasing their agricultural practices.
The research involved obtaining DNA from 475 species of fungi and 276 species of ants, including both agricultural species and their non-agricultural relatives. By examining over 2,000 genes from each species, the researchers estimated the relationships and divergence times among these species. This comprehensive genetic analysis is crucial, as some genes may have evolved rapidly due to the adoption of agriculture, potentially skewing the perceived timeline of species divergence.
The study categorizes ant species based on their farming practices. Some farm yeast, others farm coral fungi, and some engage in more sophisticated agriculture with fungi adapted to this lifestyle. Leafcutter ants, known for their advanced agricultural methods, fall into this latter category. Interestingly, all these groups, except for one outlier, cluster tightly together, indicating a shared evolutionary history.
Timing is Everything
Tracing the lineages of agricultural ants to their most recent common ancestor suggests that this ancestor lived through the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. The researchers propose that the mass extinction and subsequent environmental changes played a significant role in the evolution of ant-fungi cooperation. With minimal plant life available, fungi thrived on the abundant dead material, providing a new resource for ants to exploit.
Description: Evolutionary timeline of ants and their agricultural practices.
However, the emergence of organized farming species occurred approximately 35 million years after the mass extinction, during the transition to the Oligocene. This period saw a drying out of the tropical Americas, where fungus-farming ants evolved. The reduced availability of wild fungi may have driven the evolution of species capable of propagating fungi independently.
The study also highlights the origins of yeast strains used by farming ants and the most specialized agricultural fungal species. However, the origin of coral fungus farmers appears to have occurred around 10 million years later, suggesting different evolutionary pressures.
Future Implications
This research provides a clearer picture of the origin of agriculture in ants and offers hypotheses regarding the selective pressures that may have driven its evolution. The study's resources, including the extensive DNA data, will be invaluable for future research. Understanding the genetic basis for changes in ant behavior and fungal adaptation will require comparing the genomes of agricultural species with their free-living relatives.
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External Resources
Learn more about fungi and their ecological roles on Britannica.
