近日，印度科学教育与研究所Rhitoban Raychoudhury及其小组的最新研究揭示了种植真菌的白蚁可以用防真菌土丸来限制杂草，从而保护他们的作物。相关论文发表在2025年9月25日出版的《科学》杂志上。

研究表明，种植真菌的白蚁Odontotermes主要通过将真菌杂草Pseudoxylaria包裹在含有抑菌微生物的土壤中来实现去除、分离和抑制其生长的特定行为。这些行为有效地抑制了杂草而不影响作物。这种与白蚁衍生微生物的特定行为的整合似乎是微生物如何被白蚁局部主题化以限制杂草同时保持作物不受影响的近似机制。

据悉，白蚁的共生农业如果不能防止杂草入侵，就会崩溃。以前的研究表明，共生抑菌微生物在控制杂草方面起着重要作用。然而，白蚁如何利用这些微生物来抑制真菌杂草而不影响真菌品种仍然未知。

附：英文原文

Title: Fungus-farming termites can protect their crop by confining weeds with fungistatic soil boluses

Author: Aanchal Panchal, Ruchira Sen, Renuka Agarwal, Anjali Rana, Rhitoban Raychoudhury

Issue&Volume: 2025-09-25

Abstract: The symbiotic agriculture of fungus-farming termites can collapse if they fail to prevent invading weeds. Previous studies suggest a role for symbiotic fungistatic microbes in bringing about weed control. However, how termites employ these microbes to suppress fungal weeds without affecting the fungal cultivar remains unknown. We show that the fungus-farming termite Odontotermes obesus uses specific behaviors to remove, isolate, and suppress the growth of the fungal weed Pseudoxylaria, primarily by encasing it with soil boluses containing fungistatic microbes. These behaviors efficiently suppress the weed without affecting the crop. This integration of specific behaviors with termite-derived microbes appears to be the proximate mechanism of how microbes are topically used by termites to confine the weed while keeping the crop unaffected.

DOI: adr2713

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr2713