TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stoll, Sascha
A1  - Feldhaar, Heike
A1  - Fraunholz, Martin J.
A1  - Gross, Roy
T1  - Bacteriocyte dynamics during development of a holometabolous insect, the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus
N2  - Background: The carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus harbors obligate intracellular mutualistic bacteria (Blochmannia floridanus) in specialized cells, the bacteriocytes, intercalated in their midgut tissue. The diffuse distribution of bacteriocytes over the midgut tissue is in contrast to many other insects carrying endosymbionts in specialized tissues which are often connected to the midgut but form a distinct organ, the bacteriome. C.floridanus is a holometabolous insect which undergoes a complete metamorphosis. During pupal stages a complete restructuring of the inner organs including the digestive tract takes place. So far, nothing was known about maintenance of endosymbionts during this life stage of a holometabolous insect. It was shown previously that the number of Blochmannia increases strongly during metamorphosis. This implicates an important function of Blochmannia in this developmental phase during which the animals are metabolically very active but do not have access to external food resources. Previous experiments have shown a nutritional contribution of the bacteria to host metabolism by production of essential amino acids and urease-mediated nitrogen recycling. In adult hosts the symbiosis appears to degenerate with increasing age of the animals. Results: We investigated the distribution and dynamics of endosymbiotic bacteria and bacteriocytes at different stages during development of the animals from larva to imago by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The number of bacteriocytes in relation to symbiont-free midgut cells varied strongly over different developmental stages. Especially during metamorphosis the relative number of bacteria-filled bacteriocytes increased strongly when the larval midgut epithelium is shed. During this developmental stage the midgut itself became a huge symbiotic organ consisting almost exclusively of cells harboring bacteria. In fact, during this phase some bacteria were also found in midgut cells other than bacteriocytes indicating a cell-invasive capacity of Blochmannia. In adult animals the number of bacteriocytes generally decreased. Conclusions: During the life cycle of the animals the distribution of bacteriocytes and of Blochmannia endosymbionts is remarkably dynamic. Our data show how the endosymbiont is retained within the midgut tissue during metamorphosis thereby ensuring the maintenance of the intracellular endosymbiosis despite a massive reorganization of the midgut tissue. The transformation of the entire midgut into a symbiotic organ during pupal stages underscores the important role of Blochmannia for its host in particular during metamorphosis.
KW  - Camponotus floridanus
KW  - carpenter ant
Y1  - 2010
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-67950
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ratzka, Carolin
A1  - Förster, Frank
A1  - Liang, Chunguang
A1  - Kupper, Maria
A1  - Dandekar, Thomas
A1  - Feldhaar, Heike
A1  - Gross, Roy
T1  - Molecular characterization of antimicrobial peptide genes of the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus
N2  - The production of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is a major defense mechanism against pathogen infestation and of particular importance for insects relying exclusively on an innate immune system. Here, we report on the characterization of three AMPs from the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus. Due to sequence similarities and amino acid composition these peptides can be classified into the cysteine-rich (e.g. defensin) and glycine-rich (e.g. hymenoptaecin) AMP groups, respectively. The gene and cDNA sequences of these AMPs were established and their expression was shown to be induced by microbial challenge. We characterized two different defensin genes. The defensin-2 gene has a single intron, whereas the defensin-1 gene has two introns. The deduced amino acid sequence of the C. floridanus defensins is very similar to other known ant defensins with the exception of a short C-terminal extension of defensin-1. The hymenoptaecin gene has a single intron and a very peculiar domain structure. The corresponding precursor protein consists of a signal- and a pro-sequence followed by a hymenoptaecin-like domain and six directly repeated hymenoptaecin domains. Each of the hymenoptaecin domains is flanked by an EAEP-spacer sequence and a RR-site known to be a proteolytic processing site. Thus, proteolytic processing of the multipeptide precursor may generate several mature AMPs leading to an amplification of the immune response. Bioinformatical analyses revealed the presence of hymenoptaecin genes with similar multipeptide precursor structure in genomes of other ant species suggesting an evolutionary conserved important role of this gene in ant immunity.
KW  - Biologie
KW  - Camponotus floridanus
Y1  - 2012
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75985
ER  -