RAPD analysis of the sexual state and sterile mycelium of the fungus cultivated by the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex hispidus fallax

Abstract

That the symbiotic fungus of leaf-cutting ants only occasionally produces the sexual phase makes their identification confusing. This has occurred so rarely, either in laboratory nests, or in unbalanced field nests, that the possibility of contamination of the fungal garden by other fungi cannot be disregarded. In this paper we describe the formation of several basidiomata in a healthy and free-living nest of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex hispidus fallax the cultivation in vitro of the sterile mycelia (isolated from the fungal garden) with their typical inflated tips, and the similarity of both forms confirmed by RAPD analysis of their genomic DNA. The fungus was identified as Leucoagaricus gongylophorus.