Thème

Tripartisme et fongiculture dans les interactions entre plantes myrmécophytes et fourmis du genre Allomerus.

Financement & durée

FRB Projets innovants 2009

Durée: 2 ans (2010-2011)

Responsable scientifique

Jérôme Orivel, UMR EcoFoG

Partenariat scientifique

• UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, Kourou
• UMR Surfaces Cellulaires et Signalisation chez les Végétaux, Toulouse (N. Séjalon-Delmas)
• IFR 40, Plateforme Microscopie et Imagerie Cellulaire, Toulouse (A. Jauneau)

Présentation du projet

The aim of this project is to develop innovative research projects focusing on the contribution of microorganisms to the structuring, dynamics, and maintenance of obligatory, mutualistic associations between ants and plants. Through the study of a tripartite interaction in which plant-ants manipulate a sooty-mould to build a trap, we aim to verify if these ants practice a specific kind of fungiculture and to quantify the trophic roles this sooty-mould has developed with its two other partners, something that could lead to a reconsideration of the very nature of these ant-plant mutualisms.