Natures wonders: Ants control fungal infections (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, April 29, 2015, 15:35 (3494 days ago) @ David Turell

They secrete a fungal killer chemical to protect the colony population. They use it sparingly it seems and it has worked continuously. Not like the indiscriminate use of antibiotics by humans which has resulted in resistance to them:-http://phys.org/news/2015-04-leafcutter-ants-chemical-secretions-fungal.html-"To learn more, the team collected several leafcutter ants from sites around Panama and used them to create five individual colonies, (over the years 2004 to 2010) which were subdivided into four sub-colonies each. Colony sizes were allowed to grow to different sizes to see how fungal fighting efforts changed over time. The team also subjected the sub-colonies to various doses of the type of fungus that would typically cause a problem for the ants, and then watched closely as the ants defeated every single one of them.-"As it turns out, as a colony develops, a unique type of worker ant begins to appear, one with an enlarged metapleural gland, which secretes the phenylacetic acid—this worker ants' sole purpose appears to be eradicating fungal infections.-"The team acknowledges that their study did not shed much light on how the insects have managed to keep their antifungal agent working for so long, but suggest that it might have something to do with the way the ants apply their chemical—only when there is an infection and only on infected areas."