The mutually-dependant relationship between the Panamanian leaf-cutting ants and their fungi crops is intriguing and could hold the key to developing more effective antibiotics and bio-fuels.
These ant colonies, which cultivate fungi as a food source, carry actinomycete bacteria. This produces an antibiotic called dentigerumycin which helps to protect the fungi crops from other fungi parasites. The Harvard Medical School in Boston has isolated one of these anti-fungals and reported it to be successful in inhibiting the growth of the previously drug-resistant strain of Candida albicans which causes yeast infections in humans. Researchers hope to study different ant species and how they have adapted to develop diverging methods of fighting fungal parasites which endanger their fungal crops and apply this knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry.
Furthermore, as their name suggests, one colony of these leaf-cutting ants harvests a huge 400 kilograms of leaves to provide food for their fungal crops. However, researchers are puzzled as to how the fungi break down the cellulose in the leaves. By using a “metagenomics” approach involving the sequencing of small DNA segments from the bacteria and other organisms, and comparing these to vast DNA databases, researchers identified many bacterial species and the specific genes responsible for encoding cellulose-digesting fungal enzymes. The evolutionary history of this ant-fungal symbiosis will be critical to discovering how these enzymes have adapted to break down cellulose and may hold the key to producing more efficient bio-fuels from sugary foods like corn which contain cellulose.
To view this article: http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=5127
Other links:
http://news.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-2/Ant-Fungus-Relationship-May-Provide-New-Clues-About-Antibiotics-13211-1/
These ant colonies, which cultivate fungi as a food source, carry actinomycete bacteria. This produces an antibiotic called dentigerumycin which helps to protect the fungi crops from other fungi parasites. The Harvard Medical School in Boston has isolated one of these anti-fungals and reported it to be successful in inhibiting the growth of the previously drug-resistant strain of Candida albicans which causes yeast infections in humans. Researchers hope to study different ant species and how they have adapted to develop diverging methods of fighting fungal parasites which endanger their fungal crops and apply this knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry.
Furthermore, as their name suggests, one colony of these leaf-cutting ants harvests a huge 400 kilograms of leaves to provide food for their fungal crops. However, researchers are puzzled as to how the fungi break down the cellulose in the leaves. By using a “metagenomics” approach involving the sequencing of small DNA segments from the bacteria and other organisms, and comparing these to vast DNA databases, researchers identified many bacterial species and the specific genes responsible for encoding cellulose-digesting fungal enzymes. The evolutionary history of this ant-fungal symbiosis will be critical to discovering how these enzymes have adapted to break down cellulose and may hold the key to producing more efficient bio-fuels from sugary foods like corn which contain cellulose.
To view this article: http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=5127
Other links:
http://news.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-2/Ant-Fungus-Relationship-May-Provide-New-Clues-About-Antibiotics-13211-1/
