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Parasitism is a Strong Force Shaping the Fungus-Growing Ant–Microbe Symbiosis

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Book cover Symbioses and Stress

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 17))

Abstract

Parasitism is a biological stress that is relevant to organisms in every niche ­imaginable. There is ample evidence documenting the effects parasites have on individual hosts and on host populations, yet there has been little work done to review the importance or frequency of how a parasite influences the organisms it’s host interacts with – it’s host’s immediate community. There is, however, a shift occurring in the way scientists think about mutualisms, and people are beginning to move away from considering interactions that occur in isolation, or strictly a binary manner and toward considering symbioses as interactions embedded in a more complex community (Althoff et al., 2004, 2005; Currie et al., 1999a, b; Little and Currie, 2008). In this chapter, I discuss parasitic and mutualistic symbioses as important determinants of organismal diversity, radiation, and fitness, and I use the fungus-growing ant–microbe symbiosis as a model system in which to study ways that parasites shape the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of mutualistic organisms. I conclude with the hypothesis that mutualism may be a viable solution to parasitism and, in turn, discuss the possibility that parasitism may in fact contribute to evolutionary stability of persistent mutualisms.

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  1. Intellectual Property Group, Quarles and Brady LLP, Madison, WI, USA

    Ainslie E. F. Little

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Correspondence to Ainslie E. F. Little .

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  1. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

  2. , Institute of Plant Sciences, Karl-Franzens-University, Holteigasse 6, Graz, 8010, Austria

    Martin Grube

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Little, A.E.F. (2010). Parasitism is a Strong Force Shaping the Fungus-Growing Ant–Microbe Symbiosis. In: Seckbach, J., Grube, M. (eds) Symbioses and Stress. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 17. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9449-0_12

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