@ARTICLE{TreeBASE2Ref2147, author = {Martin Heil and Stefanie Kautz and H. Thorsten Lumbsch and Philip S. Ward}, title = {How to prevent cheating: A digestive specialization ties mutualistic plant-ants to their ant-plant partners.}, year = {2008}, keywords = {}, doi = {}, url = {}, pmid = {}, journal = {Evolution}, volume = {}, number = {}, pages = {}, abstract = {Mutualisms often involve reciprocal adaptations of both partners. Acacia ant-plants that are defended by symbiotic Pseudomyrmex ants secrete sucrose-free extrafloral nectar, which is unattractive to generalists. We aimed to investigate whether this extrafloral nectar also can exclude exploiters, i.e. non-defending ant species. Mutualist workers discriminated against sucrose while exploiters and generalists preferred sucrose, since mutualist workers lacked the sucrose-cleaving enzyme invertase, which is present in workers of the other two groups. Sucrose uptake induced invertase activity in workers of parasites and generalists, but not mutualists, and in larvae of all species. Apparently, the mutualists loose invertase during their ontogeny. This adaptation seemingly ties the mutualists to their plant hosts, but it does not completely prevent the mutualism from exploitation. We therefore investigated whether the exploiters studied here are cheaters (i.e., have evolved from former mutualists) or parasites (exploiters with no evolutionary history as a mutualist). A molecular phylogeny demonstrates that the exploiter species studied here did not evolve from former mutualists, and no evidence for cheater species was found. We conclude that being specialized to their partner can prevent mutualists from becoming cheaters, while other mechanisms are required to stabilize a mutualism against the exploitation by parasites.} }

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