Blochmannia endosymbionts improve colony growth and immune defence in the ant Camponotus fellah

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Open Access

1 January 2009

journal article
Published by Springer Nature in BMC Microbiology

Vol. 9 (1) , 29
DOI:10.1186/1471-2180-9-29
PMID:19200360
PMCID:PMC2660346

Abstract

Microorganisms are a large and diverse form of life. Many of them live in association with large multicellular organisms, developing symbiotic relations with the host and some have even evolved to form obligate endosymbiosis 1. All Carpenter ants (genus Camponotus) studied hitherto harbour primary endosymbiotic bacteria of the Blochmannia genus. The role of these bacteria in ant nutrition has been demonstrated 2 but the omnivorous diet of these ants lead us to hypothesize that the bacteria might provide additional advantages to their host. In this study, we establish links between Blochmannia, growth of starting new colonies and the host immune response.

Keywords

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