Zombie Ant Fungus

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Beneficial Species Profile Photo credit: Dr. David P. Hughes; Hughes Lab, Penn State University Common Name: Zombie Ant Fungus Scientific Name: Ophiocordyceps unilateralis Order and Family: Hypocreales; Ophiocordycipitaceae Size and Appearance: Length (mm) Appearance Egg Larva/Nymph Spores are found on the ground waiting to be picked up by ants Adult The stalk is wiry and flexible; darkly pigmented and extends the length of the ant’s head; close to the tip there is a small flask-shaped fruiting body that releases spores Pupa (if applicable) Type of feeder (Chewing, sucking, etc.): Spores that release a chemical Host/s: Carpenter Ants Description of Benefits (predator, parasitoid, pollinator, etc.): This fungus releases spores that drop to the rainforest floor and then attach onto unsuspecting ants. Once the spores are attached, they inject a chemical into the ant’s brain, making it become disoriented and move to certain locations on plants. There the ant uses its mandibles to affix itself to a leaf or branch and eventually dies. Once the ant is dead, the fungus rapidly grows and starts to form a fruiting body that extrudes from the ant’s head. If the ant is not removed from the colony, then the whole colony can become infected. References: Araujo, J. P., Evans, H. C., Geiser, D. M., Mackay, W. P., & Hughes, D. P. (2014, April 3). Unravelling the diversity behind the Ophiocordyceps unilateral complex: Three new species of zombie-ant fungi from the Brazilian Amazon. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2014/09/29/003806.full.pdf Andersen, S. B., Gerritsma, S., Yusah, K. M., D. M., Hywel-Jones, N. L., Billen, J., . Hughes, D. P. (2009, September). The Life of a Dead Ant: The Expression of an Adaptive Extended Phenotype. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://ento.psu.edu/publications/DH1 Brusson, Laura. (2013, June, 7). Ophiocordyceps unilateralis - Zombie Ant Fungus. Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved February 2, 2017, from eol.org/pages/6471318/details Gill, C. (2014, August 22). Zombie ant fungi 'know' brains of their hosts | Penn State University. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://news.psu.edu/story/323688/2014/08/22/research/zombie-ant-fungi-know-brains- their-hosts .

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VOLUME 1 JUNE 2018 Fungal Systematics and Evolution PAGES 13–22 doi.org/10.3114/fuse.2018.01.02 Epitypification and re-description of the zombie-ant fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (Ophiocordycipitaceae) H.C. Evans1,2*, J.P.M. Araújo3, V.R. Halfeld4, D.P. Hughes3 1CAB International, UK Centre, Egham, Surrey, UK 2Departamentos de Entomologia e Fitopatologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil 3Departments of Entomology and Biology, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA 4Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil *Corresponding author: [email protected] Key words: Abstract: The type of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (Ophiocordycipitaceae, Hypocreales, Ascomycota) is based on an Atlantic rainforest immature specimen collected on an ant in Brazil. The host was identified initially as a leaf-cutting ant (Atta cephalotes, Camponotus sericeiventris Attini, Myrmicinae). However, a critical examination of the original illustration reveals that the host is the golden carpenter ants carpenter ant, Camponotus sericeiventris (Camponotini, Formicinae). Because the holotype is no longer extant and epitype the original diagnosis lacks critical taxonomic information – specifically, on ascus and ascospore morphology – a new Ophiocordyceps type from Minas Gerais State of south-east Brazil is designated herein. A re-description of the fungus is provided and phylogeny a new phylogenetic tree of the O. unilateralis clade is presented. It is predicted that many more species of zombie- ant fungi remain to be delimited within the O. unilateralis complex worldwide, on ants of the tribe Camponotini. Published online: 15 December 2017. Editor-in-Chief INTRODUCTIONProf. dr P.W. Crous, Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, P.O.
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Unravelling the Diversity Behind the Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis (Ophiocordycipitaceae) Complex: Three New Species of Zombie-Ant Fungi from the Brazilian Amazon
Phytotaxa 220 (3): 224–238 ISSN 1179-3155 (print edition) www.mapress.com/phytotaxa/ PHYTOTAXA Copyright © 2015 Magnolia Press Article ISSN 1179-3163 (online edition) http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.220.3.2 Unravelling the diversity behind the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (Ophiocordycipitaceae) complex: Three new species of zombie-ant fungi from the Brazilian Amazon JOÃO P. M. ARAÚJO1*, HARRY C. EVANS2, DAVID M. GEISER3, WILLIAM P. MACKAY4 & DAVID P. HUGHES1, 5* 1 Department of Biology, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America. 2 CAB International, E-UK, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom 3 Department of Plant Pathology, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America. 4 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Avenue, El Paso, Texas, United States of America. 5 Department of Entomology, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, United States of America. * email: [email protected]; [email protected] Abstract In tropical forests, one of the most commonly encountered relationships between parasites and insects is that between the fungus Ophiocordyceps (Ophiocordycipitaceae, Hypocreales, Ascomycota) and ants, especially within the tribe Campono- tini. Here, we describe three newly discovered host-specific species, Ophiocordyceps camponoti-atricipis, O. camponoti- bispinosi and O. camponoti-indiani, on Camponotus ants from the central Amazonian region of Brazil, which can readily be separated using morphological traits, in particular the shape and behavior of the ascospores. DNA sequence data support inclusion of these species within the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis complex. Introduction In tropical forests, social insects (ants, bees, termites and wasps) are the most abundant land-dwelling arthropods.
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Standardized Nuclear Markers Advance Metazoan Taxonomy
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.07.443120; this version posted May 8, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. Standardized nuclear markers advance metazoan taxonomy Lars Dietz1, Jonas Eberle1,2, Christoph Mayer1, Sandra Kukowka1, Claudia Bohacz1, Hannes Baur3, Marianne Espeland1, Bernhard A. Huber1, Carl Hutter4, Ximo Mengual1, Ralph S. Peters1, Miguel Vences5, Thomas Wesener1, Keith Willmott6, Bernhard Misof1,7, Oliver Niehuis8, Dirk Ahrens*1 1Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany 2Paris-Lodron-University, Salzburg, Austria 3Naturhistorisches Museum Bern/ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Switzerland 4Museum of Natural Sciences and Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA 5Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany 6Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA 7Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Germany 8Abt. Evolutionsbiologie und Ökologie, Institut für Biologie I, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Abstract Species are the fundamental units of life and their recognition is essential for science and society. DNA barcoding, the use of a single and often mitochondrial gene, has been increasingly employed as a universal approach for the identification of animal species. However, this approach faces several challenges. Here, we demonstrate with empirical data from a number of metazoan animal lineages that multiple nuclear-encoded markers, so called universal single-copy orthologs (USCOs) performs much better than the single barcode gene to discriminate closely related species. Overcoming the general shortcomings of mitochondrial DNA barcodes, USCOs also accurately assign samples to higher taxonomic levels.
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What Can the Bacterial Community of Atta Sexdens (Linnaeus, 1758) Tell Us About the Habitats in Which This Ant Species Evolves?
insects Article What Can the Bacterial Community of Atta sexdens (Linnaeus, 1758) Tell Us about the Habitats in Which This Ant Species Evolves? Manuela de Oliveira Ramalho 1,2,*, Cintia Martins 3, Maria Santina Castro Morini 4 and Odair Correa Bueno 1 1 Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais—CEIS, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Campus Rio Claro, Avenida 24A, 1515, Bela Vista, Rio Claro 13506-900, SP, Brazil; [email protected] 2 Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 129 Garden Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA 3 Campus Ministro Reis Velloso, Universidade Federal do Piauí, Av. São Sebastião, 2819, Parnaíba, Piauí 64202-020, Brazil; [email protected] 4 Núcleo de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes, Av. Dr. Cândido Xavier de Almeida e Souza, 200, Centro Cívico, Mogi das Cruzes 08780-911, SP, Brazil; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 5 March 2020; Accepted: 22 May 2020; Published: 28 May 2020 Abstract: Studies of bacterial communities can reveal the evolutionary significance of symbiotic interactions between hosts and their associated bacteria, as well as identify environmental factors that may influence host biology. Atta sexdens is an ant species native to Brazil that can act as an agricultural pest due to its intense behavior of cutting plants. Despite being extensively studied, certain aspects of the general biology of this species remain unclear, such as the evolutionary implications of the symbiotic relationships it forms with bacteria. Using high-throughput amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, we compared for the first time the bacterial community of A.
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11 the Evolutionary Strategy of Claviceps
Pažoutová S. (2002) Evolutionary strategy of Claviceps. In: Clavicipitalean Fungi: Evolutionary Biology, Chemistry, Biocontrol and Cultural Impacts. White JF, Bacon CW, Hywel-Jones NL (Eds.) Marcel Dekker, New York, Basel, pp.329-354. 11 The Evolutionary Strategy of Claviceps Sylvie Pažoutová Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences Vídeòská 1083, 142 20 Prague, Czech Republic 1. INTRODUCTION Members of the genus Claviceps are specialized parasites of grasses, rushes and sedges that specifically infect florets. The host reproductive organs are replaced with a sclerotium. However, it has been shown that after artificial inoculation, C. purpurea can grow and form sclerotia on stem meristems (Lewis, 1956) so that there is a capacity for epiphytic and endophytic growth. C. phalaridis, an Australian endemite, colonizes whole plants of pooid hosts in a way similar to Epichloë and it forms sclerotia in all florets of the infected plant, rendering it sterile (Walker, 1957; 1970). Until now, about 45 teleomorph species of Claviceps have been described, but presumably many species may exist only in anamorphic (sphacelial) stage and therefore go unnoticed. Although C. purpurea is type species for the genus, it is in many aspects untypical, because most Claviceps species originate from tropical regions, colonize panicoid grasses, produce macroconidia and microconidia in their sphacelial stage and are able of microcyclic conidiation from macroconidia. Species on panicoid hosts with monogeneric to polygeneric host ranges predominate. 329 2. PHYLOGENETIC TREE We compared sequences of ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA region for 19 species of Claviceps, Database sequences of Myrothecium atroviride (AJ302002) (outgroup from Bionectriaceae), Epichloe amarillans (L07141), Atkinsonella hypoxylon (U57405) and Myriogenospora atramentosa (U57407) were included to root the tree among other related genera.
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Occurrence of Purpureocillium Lilacinum in Citrus Black Fly Nymphs
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Purpureocillium Lilacinum and Metarhizium Marquandii As Plant Growth-Promoting Fungi
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Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis: a Keystone Species for Unraveling Ecosystem Functioning and Biodiversity of Fungi in Tropical Forests?
Communicative & Integrative Biology ISSN: (Print) 1942-0889 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/kcib20 Ophiocordyceps unilateralis: A keystone species for unraveling ecosystem functioning and biodiversity of fungi in tropical forests? Harry C. Evans, Simon L. Elliot & David P. Hughes To cite this article: Harry C. Evans, Simon L. Elliot & David P. Hughes (2011) Ophiocordyceps unilateralis: A keystone species for unraveling ecosystem functioning and biodiversity of fungi in tropical forests?, Communicative & Integrative Biology, 4:5, 598-602, DOI: 10.4161/cib.16721 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.4161/cib.16721 Copyright © 2011 Landes Bioscience Published online: 01 Sep 2011. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1907 View related articles Citing articles: 23 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=kcib20 Communicative & Integrative Biology 4:5, 598-602; September/October 2011; ©2011 Landes Bioscience Ophiocordyceps unilateralis A keystone species for unraveling ecosystem functioning and biodiversity of fungi in tropical forests? Harry C. Evans,1,* Simon L. Elliot1 and David P. Hughes2 1Department of Entomology; Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV); Viçosa; Minas Gerais, Brazil; 2Department of Entomology and Department of Biology; Penn State University; University Park; PA USA phiocordyceps unilateralis (Ascomy- thus far4—this group of organisms still O cota: Hypocreales) is a specialized receives relatively little press in terms of parasite that infects, manipulates and its biodiversity and the pivotal role it plays kills formicine ants, predominantly in ecosystem functioning. Recently, how- in tropical forest ecosystems. We have ever, the subject has been revisited within reported previously, based on a prelimi- the context of microbes associated with nary study in remnant Atlantic Forest beetles.5 Of the near one million species ©2011 Landesin Minas Gerais (Brazil), thatBioscience.
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(Hypocreales) Proposed for Acceptance Or Rejection
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The Stipitate Species of Hypocrea (Hypocreales, Hypocreaceae) Including Podostroma
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Multigene Phylogeny and Morphology Reveal a New Species, Ophiocordyceps Vespulae, from Jilin Province, China
Phytotaxa 478 (1): 033–048 ISSN 1179-3155 (print edition) https://www.mapress.com/j/pt/ PHYTOTAXA Copyright © 2021 Magnolia Press Article ISSN 1179-3163 (online edition) https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.478.1.2 Multigene phylogeny and morphology reveal a new species, Ophiocordyceps vespulae, from Jilin Province, China FENG-YAO LONG1, 2, 6, LI-WU QIN3, 7, YUAN-PIN XIAO2, 4, 8, KEVIN D. HYDE4, 9, SHAO-XIAN WANG3, 10* & TING-CHI WEN1, 2, 5, 11* 1 School of Pharmacy, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, Guizhou, China. 2 The Engineering Research Center of Southwest Bio-Pharmaceutical Resources, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, Guizhou, China. 3 Changbai Mountain Academy of Sciences, Jilin Provincial Joint Key Laboratory of Changbai Mountains Biocoenosis & Biodiversity, Erdaobaihe 133613, Jilin, China. 4 Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100 Thailand. 5Mushroom Research Institute,Guizhou University,Guiyang,550025,China 6 [email protected]; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5818-694X 7 [email protected]; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5586-2885 8 [email protected]; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1730-3545 9 [email protected]; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2191-0762 10 [email protected]; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0921-1790 11 [email protected]; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1744-5869 *Corresponding author Abstract Ophiocordyceps is entomopathogenic and is the best studied genus in Ophiocordycipitaceae. Members of Ophiocordyceps and ants form sophisticated interactions. However, taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of this group of pathogens remain unclear. During a survey in Changbai Mountains, Jiling Province, China, a new entomogenous species, Ophiocordyceps vespulae sp.
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Hirsutella Sinensis
Jin et al. AMB Expr (2020) 10:105 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13568-020-01039-x ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access Genome sequencing and analysis of fungus Hirsutella sinensis isolated from Ophiocordyceps sinensis Li‑Qun Jin1, Zhe‑Wen Xu1, Bo Zhang1, Ming Yi1, Chun‑Yue Weng1, Shan Lin1, Hui Wu2,3, Xiang‑Tian Qin2,3, Feng Xu2,3, Yi Teng2,3, Shui‑Jin Yuan2,3, Zhi‑Qiang Liu1* and Yu‑Guo Zheng1 Abstract Ophiocordyceps sinensis has been used as a traditional medicine or healthy food in China for thousands of years. Hirsutella sinensis was reported as the only correct anamorph of O. sinensis. It is reported that the laboratory‑grown H. sinensis mycelium has similar clinical efcacy and less associated toxicity compared to the wild O. sinensis. The research of the H. sinensis is becoming more and more important and urgent. To gain deeper insight into the biological and pharmacological mechanisms, we sequenced the genome of H. sinensis. The genome of H. sinensis (102.72 Mb) was obtained for the frst time, with > 99% coverage. 10,200 protein‑encoding genes were predicted based on the genome sequence. A detailed secondary metabolism analysis and structure verifcation of the main ingredients were performed, and the biosynthesis pathways of seven ingredients (mannitol, cordycepin, purine nucleotides, pyrimi‑ dine nucleotides, unsaturated fatty acid, cordyceps polysaccharide and sphingolipid) were predicted and drawn. Furthermore, infection process and mechanism of H. sinensis were studied and elaborated in this article. The enzymes involved in the infection mechanism were also predicted, cloned and expressed to verify the mechanism. The genes and proteins were predicted and annotated based on the genome sequence.
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