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. 2010 May;3(3):248-50.
doi: 10.4161/cib.3.3.11415.

Dispersion and colonisation by fungus-growing termites: Vertical transmission of the symbiont helps, but then...?

Tania Nobre  1 , Durr K Aanen
Affiliations

Dispersion and colonisation by fungus-growing termites: Vertical transmission of the symbiont helps, but then...?

Tania Nobre et al. Commun Integr Biol. 2010 May.

Abstract

The fungus-growing termites (Macrotermitinae) have developed an obligate mutualistic symbiosis with fungi (Termitomyces) and, in most cases, the symbiotic partner is collected from the environment upon establishment of a new colony (horizontal transmission). The requirement that partners are able to find and recognize each other after independent reproduction is likely to severely constrain long distance dispersal. In support of this hypothesis, we have recently shown that a single colonisation of Madagascar by fungus-growing termites has occurred. The successful colonizers belong to the genus Microtermes, known to inherit their symbiont from the parental colony (vertical transmission). However, the fungal symbionts of Madagascar were not monophyletic, as expected under strict vertical transmission. Here we further discuss these findings, and we suggest further bottlenecks to dispersion and propose a transient window for horizontal transmission for the otherwise vertically transmitted Termitomyces strains.

Keywords: long-distance dispersal; microtermes; mutualism; symbiont transmission mode; termitomyces; vertical transmission.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the phylogeny of: (A) fungus-growing termites, showing monophyly of the Malagasy clade and (B) Termitomyces, where symbionts associated with Malagasy Microtermes are shown to belong to three different clades (reviewed in ref. 11); samples from Madagascar are represented by shaded boxes. addition, the gathering of Termitomyces spores by fungus-growing termites seems to be a selective process, as suggested by the observed patterns of co-evolution.2,16,22 It remains to be tested how this selectivity occurs.
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References

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