Background:

The leaf-cutter ant species (Atta and Acromirmex) have a mutualistic relationship with the basidiomycete fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus (Agaricaceae). This relationship is crucial to the life cycles of both organisms.

Objectives:

Due to the lack of reports about isolation of the fungus cultivated by the ant Atta mexicana (Formicidae), the objectives of this work were in vitro isolation and identification of L. gongylophorus from the fungal garden of A. mexicana.

Methods:

The identification of the fungi was carried out by observation of macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, as well as molecular and phylogenetic analysis based on ITS region of rDNA genes’ cluster.

Results and conclusions:

The phylogenetic analysis demonstrated 99% identity with the ITS sequences of L. gongylophorus presented in GenBank that were reported for other fungal isolates from Attini tribe nests developed by genera Atta and Acromyrmex. For this reason, this work is the first report of in vitro isolation and identification of L. gongylophorus from the nest of Atta mexicana.

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