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RAPD analysis of the sexual state and sterile mycelium of the fungus cultivated by the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex hispidus fallax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2001

Fernando C. PAGNOCCA ,
Maurício BACCI ,
Maria H. FUNGARO ,
Odair C. BUENO ,
Maria J. HEBLING ,
Ariovaldo SANT'ANNA  and
Marina CAPELARI
Fernando C. PAGNOCCA
Affiliation:
Instituto de Biociências – Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais – UNESP, CEP 13506-900 – Rio Claro, Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
Maurício BACCI
Affiliation:
Instituto de Biociências – Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais – UNESP, CEP 13506-900 – Rio Claro, Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
Maria H. FUNGARO
Affiliation:
Universidade Estadual de Londrina – Caixa Postal 6001 CEP 86.051-900 – Londrina, Estado do Paraná, Brazil
Odair C. BUENO
Affiliation:
Instituto de Biociências – Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais – UNESP, CEP 13506-900 – Rio Claro, Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
Maria J. HEBLING
Affiliation:
Instituto de Biociências – Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais – UNESP, CEP 13506-900 – Rio Claro, Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
Ariovaldo SANT'ANNA
Affiliation:
Instituto de Biociências – Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais – UNESP, CEP 13506-900 – Rio Claro, Estado de São Paulo, Brazil
Marina CAPELARI
Affiliation:
Instituto de Botânica. Caixa Postal 4005 – CEP 01061-970-São Paulo, S.P., Brazil
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Abstract

That the symbiotic fungus of leaf-cutting ants only occasionally produces the sexual phase makes their identification confusing. This has occurred so rarely, either in laboratory nests, or in unbalanced field nests, that the possibility of contamination of the fungal garden by other fungi cannot be disregarded. In this paper we describe the formation of several basidiomata in a healthy and free-living nest of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex hispidus fallax, the cultivation in vitro of the sterile mycelia (isolated from the fungal garden) with their typical inflated tips, and the similarity of both forms confirmed by RAPD analysis of their genomic DNA. The fungus was identified as Leucoagaricus gongylophorus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mycological Research , Volume 105 , Issue 2 , February 2001 , pp. 173 - 176
Copyright
© The British Mycological Society 2001

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