TY - JOUR
T1 - The interactions of ants with their biotic environment
AU - Chomicki, Guillaume
AU - Renner, Susanne S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Our research is supported by the DFG grants RE 603/20-1 and -2, and we are also grateful to the DFG for funding the symposium Ants 2016 (grant no. RE 603/23-1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/3/15
Y1 - 2017/3/15
N2 - This special feature results from the symposium ‘Ants 2016: ant interactions with their biotic environments’ held in Munich in May 2016 and deals with the interactions between ants and other insects, plants, microbes and fungi, studied at micro- and macroevolutionary levels with a wide range of approaches, from field ecology to next-generation sequencing, chemical ecology and molecular genetics. In this paper, we review key aspects of these biotic interactions to provide background information for the papers of this special feature. After listing the major types of biotic interactions that ants engage in, we present a brief overview of ant/ant communication, ant/plant interactions, ant/fungus symbioses, and recent insights about ants and their endosymbionts. Using a large molecular clock-dated Formicidae phylogeny, we map the evolutionary origins of different ant clades’ interactions with plants, fungi and hemiptera. Ants’ biotic interactions provide ideal systems to address fundamental ecological and evolutionary questions about mutualism, coevolution, adaptation and animal communication.
AB - This special feature results from the symposium ‘Ants 2016: ant interactions with their biotic environments’ held in Munich in May 2016 and deals with the interactions between ants and other insects, plants, microbes and fungi, studied at micro- and macroevolutionary levels with a wide range of approaches, from field ecology to next-generation sequencing, chemical ecology and molecular genetics. In this paper, we review key aspects of these biotic interactions to provide background information for the papers of this special feature. After listing the major types of biotic interactions that ants engage in, we present a brief overview of ant/ant communication, ant/plant interactions, ant/fungus symbioses, and recent insights about ants and their endosymbionts. Using a large molecular clock-dated Formicidae phylogeny, we map the evolutionary origins of different ant clades’ interactions with plants, fungi and hemiptera. Ants’ biotic interactions provide ideal systems to address fundamental ecological and evolutionary questions about mutualism, coevolution, adaptation and animal communication.
KW - Ants
KW - Bacteria
KW - Fungi
KW - Insects
KW - Interactions
KW - Plants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85015286406&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2017.0013
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2017.0013
M3 - Editorial
C2 - 28298352
AN - SCOPUS:85015286406
SN - 0962-8452
VL - 284
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
IS - 1850
M1 - 20170013
ER -