Abstract
Ants live under ideal microclimatic conditions for the development of microorganisms. As mechanisms to ensure the health of the colony and as a defense strategy, these insects developed exocrine glands that work in the production of antibiotics (chemical defense) and in the immune defense of the colony. This study aimed to describe the state-of-the-art on extraction methods, chemical characterization and the antibiotic potential of glandular secretions of ants. This is a review of the scientific literature between 1989 and 2017. A total of 52 articles were selected. These addressed the behavior, chemical characterization, the antimicrobial effect and evaluated methods of extraction. The most investigated genera are Atta, Acromyrmexand Crematogaster. The glands most reported in the articles involving extraction of secretions were Dufour, mandibular and metapleural. The most reported methods of extraction were gland maceration and extraction with (organic) solvents and direct extraction of the gland. Most studies evaluated secretions with respect to ant behavior. There is a paucityin the literature about the chemical characterization of most glandular secretions of ants, as well as for most taxa. The same deficiency is observed with regard to prospecting the antibiotic and antifungal potential of these secretions. for most taxa. The same deficiency is observed with regard to prospecting the antibiotic and antifungal potential of these secretions.
Highlights
Ants represent a group of social insects found in all terrestrial ecosystems, with the exception ofthe poles (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990; Fernández, 2003)
Two articles found in the Biblioteca Virtual emSaúde (BVS) and three selected in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO) were included because they directly met the criteria determined for analysis, as follows:Attygalle et al (1998), Nascimento et al (1996), Marsaro-Júnior et al (2001), Quinet et al (2012) as well as Melo and Fortich (2013)
A total of 26 (50%) studies aimed to analyze behavior, 20 (38.46%) performed chemical characterization, six (11.54%) tested the antimicrobial effect and two (3.85%) evaluated extraction methods
Summary
Ants represent a group of social insects found in all terrestrial ecosystems, with the exception ofthe poles (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990; Fernández, 2003). In the tropics, these insects present the higher richness, abundance and number of endemic species (Guenard et al, 2012; Baccaro et al, 2015). Formicidae is composed of 20 subfamilies, 474 genera, 16,029 species (AntWeb, 2018) The ubiquity of these organisms and their multiple interactions with other species make them one of the dominant insect families in tropical terrestrial ecosystems (Campos, 2011; Morreau & Bell, 2013). In Brazil, 1,458 species have been cataloged, distributed in 111 genera, which means that the country has one of the largest diversity of these organisms in the world (Baccaro et al, 2015)
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