Data from: Distinctive fungal communities in an obligate African ant-plant mutualism

Three ant species nest obligately in the swollen-thorn domatia of the African ant-plant Vachellia (Acacia) drepanolobium, a model system for the study of ant-defence mutualisms and species coexistence. Here we report on the characteristic fungal communities generated by these ant species in their domatia. First, we describe behavioural differences between the ant species when presented with a cultured fungal isolate in the laboratory. Second, we use DNA metabarcoding to show that each ant species has a distinctive fungal community in its domatia, and that these communities remain characteristic of the ant species over two Kenyan sampling locations separated by 190 km. Third, we find that DNA extracted from female alates of Tetraponera penzigi and Crematogaster nigriceps contained matches for most of the fungal metabarcodes from those ant species' domatia, respectively. Fungal hyphae and other debris are also visible in sections of these alates' infrabuccal pockets. Collectively, our results indicate that domatium fungal communities are associated with the ant species occupying the tree. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of such ant-specific fungal community-level differences on the same myrmecophytic host species. These differences may be shaped by ant behaviour in the domatia, and by ants vectoring fungi when they disperse to establish new colonies. The roles of the fungi with respect to the ants and their host plant remain to be determined.三种蚂蚁专性筑巢于非洲蚁栖植物非洲金合欢（Vachellia (Acacia) drepanolobium）的膨大刺状巢室（domatia）中，该植物是研究蚂蚁防御共生关系与物种共存的经典模式系统。本研究报道了这些蚂蚁在其巢室内所形成的特征性真菌群落：首先，本研究描述了实验室环境下，三种蚂蚁面对人工培养的真菌分离株时的行为差异；其次，通过DNA元条形码（DNA metabarcoding）技术分析，本研究证实每种蚂蚁的巢室内均拥有独特的真菌群落，且这种物种特异性的真菌群落特征在相距190公里的两个肯尼亚采样点中均保持稳定；第三，本研究发现，从廷氏四节刺蚁（Tetraponera penzigi）和黑顶举腹蚁（Crematogaster nigriceps）的雌型有翅繁殖蚁（alates）中提取的DNA，分别匹配到了对应蚂蚁物种巢室内的绝大多数真菌元条形码序列。此外，在这些有翅繁殖蚁的口下囊（infrabuccal pockets）切片中，也可观察到真菌菌丝与其他碎屑。综上，本研究结果表明，巢室内的真菌群落与占据该宿主植物的蚂蚁物种密切相关。据我们所知，本研究首次在同一蚁栖宿主植物上报道了这种蚂蚁特异性的真菌群落水平差异。这类群落差异可能由蚂蚁在巢室内的行为模式，以及蚂蚁在扩散建立新蚁群时携带真菌的行为所塑造。至于这些真菌在蚂蚁与宿主植物的共生关系中所扮演的角色，仍有待进一步探明。