Evolutionary histories of bacterial endosymbionts and their herbivorous ant hosts

Bacterial endosymbionts are widespread across many ant species but we are just beginning to understand their diversity and putative functions. Recent studies suggest that bacterial gut symbionts may play an important role in the evolution of herbivorous ants. To describe the evolution of the symbioses between bacteria and their ant hosts, we reconstructed evolutionary histories of selected herbivorous ants and their associated bacteria. Ant species included in this study were from the genera Pachycondyla. The barcoding region COI was used as molecular marker for the ants. For the putative endosymbionts, we used specific primers of the 16S rDNA for selected bacteria, including Blochmannia to determine if these are coevolved relationships.