TY  - JOUR
AU  - Duplais, Christophe
AU  - Sarou-Kanian, Vincent
AU  - Massiot, Dominique
AU  - Hassan, Alia
AU  - Perrone, Barbara
AU  - Estevez, Yannick
AU  - Wertz, John
AU  - Martineau, Estelle
AU  - Farjon, Jonathan
AU  - Giraudeau, Patrick
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Gut bacteria are essential for normal cutile development in herbivorous turtle ants
JO  - Nature Communication
SP  - 1
EP  - 6
VL  - 12
PB  - NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
N2  - Across the evolutionary history of insects, the shift from nitrogen-rich carnivore/omnivore diets to nitrogen-poor herbivorous diets was made possible through symbiosis with microbes. The herbivorous turtle ants Cephalotes possess a conserved gut microbiome which enriches the nutrient composition by recycling nitrogen-rich metabolic waste to increase the production of amino acids. This enrichment is assumed to benefit the host, but we do not know to what extent. To gain insights into nitrogen assimilation in the ant cuticle we use gut bacterial manipulation, 15N isotopic enrichment, isotope-ratio mass spectrometry, and 15N nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to demonstrate that gut bacteria contribute to the formation of proteins, catecholamine cross-linkers, and chitin in the cuticle. This study identifies the cuticular components which are nitrogen-enriched by gut bacteria, highlighting the role of symbionts in insect evolution, and provides a framework for understanding the nitrogen flow from nutrients through bacteria into the insect cuticle.
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21065-y
N1  - exported from refbase (http://php.ecofog.gf/refbase/show.php?record=1005), last updated on Mon, 18 Jul 2022 11:36:23 -0300
ID  - Duplais_etal2021
ER  -