An entangled bank of species interactions underlies the ecology and evolution of ant fungal agriculture

The symbiosis of fungus-growing (attine) ant agriculture is nestled within an entangled bank of multipartite complex species interactions. In the decades since the field first arose, with a focus on the attine ants and the fungi they cultivate, there have been notable shifts in what is considered a “canonical” interaction within attine gardens. The study of ant–cultivar interactions broadened to describe tripartite interactions between ants, cultivars, and fungal parasites and continued expanding to include parasite-inhibiting bacteria. Beyond this quadripartite network, additional invertebrates and a great diversity of “non-canonical” microbes are frequently present in fungus-growing ant gardens. While providing an overview of the members of these complex, interacting communities, we summarize their functional importance from observations, experiments, genomics, and chemistry. We suggest that the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of attine agriculture are closely intertwined with multipartite interactions that occur within and around attine gardens. The field’s next steps will require interdisciplinary collaboration and integrative approaches in taxonomy, genomics, chemistry, and experimentation at the community level. These multiple lines of evidence will allow for a better understanding of the diversification and evolution of the ant–fungal agriculture as a multitrophic and multisymbiotic network.