Hu Y Sanders JG Łukasik P D'Amelio CL Millar JS Vann DR Lan Y Newton JA Schotanus M Kronauer DJC Pierce NE Moreau CS Wertz JT Engel P Russell JA 2018 Nitrogen acquisition is a major challenge for herbivorous animals, and the repeated origins of herbivory across the ants have raised expectations that nutritional symbionts have shaped their diversification. Direct evidence for N provisioning by internally housed symbionts is rare in animals; among the ants, it has been documented for just one lineage. In this study we dissect functional contributions by bacteria from a conserved, multi-partite gut symbiosis in herbivorous Cephalotes ants through in vivo experiments, metagenomics, and in vitro assays. Gut bacteria recycle urea, and likely uric acid, using recycled N to synthesize essential amino acids that are acquired by hosts in substantial quantities. Specialized core symbionts of 17 studied Cephalotes species encode the pathways directing these activities, and several recycle N in vitro. These findings point to a highly efficient N economy, and a nutritional mutualism preserved for millions of years through the derived behaviors and gut anatomy of Cephalotes ants. application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/20408 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/s41467-018-03357-y info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/29511180 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Nature communications. - 2018 Amino Acids Ammonia Animals Ants Diet Gastrointestinal Microbiome Geography Herbivory Metagenome Metagenomics Nitrogen Nitrogen Fixation Nitrogen Isotopes Symbiosis Urea Urease Uric Acid Herbivorous turtle ants obtain essential nutrients from a conserved nitrogen-recycling gut microbiome. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501