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Cited by 356

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Coevolved Crypts and Exocrine Glands Support Mutualistic Bacteria in Fungus-Growing Ants

Currie, Cameron R., Poulsen, Michael, Mendenhall, John, Boomsma, Jacobus J., Billen, Johan·2006·Science

Abstract

Attine ants engage in a quadripartite symbiosis with fungi they cultivate for food, specialized garden parasites, and parasite-inhibiting bacteria. Molecular phylogenetic evidence supports an ancient host-pathogen association between the ant-cultivar mutualism and the garden parasite. Here we show that ants rear the antibiotic-producing bacteria in elaborate cuticular crypts, supported by unique exocrine glands, and that these structures have been highly modified across the ants' evolutionary history. This specialized structural evolution, together with the absence of these bacteria and modifications in other ant genera that do not grow fungus, indicate that the bacteria have an ancient and coevolved association with the ants, their fungal cultivar, and the garden parasite.

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Crossref · 10.1126/science.1119744

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Metadata

Authors
Currie, C. R., Poulsen, M., Mendenhall, J., Boomsma, J. J., & Billen, J.
Venue
Science
Published
2006-01-06
Volume
311
Issue
5757
Pages
81-83
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W2125343301
Cited by
356
References
11
FWCI
10.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Coevolved Crypts and Exocrine Glands Support Mutualistic Bacteria in Fungus-Growing Ants. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1126/science.1119744
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Currie, C. R., Poulsen, M., Mendenhall, J., Boomsma, J. J., & Billen, J. (2006). Coevolved Crypts and Exocrine Glands Support Mutualistic Bacteria in Fungus-Growing Ants. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1119744

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.