Watching a river of little leaf pieces bobbing and weaving along a little path only to disappear underground is an amazing sight. Most people assume leaf-cutter ants are herbivores, plant-eaters, but no, they are fungivores, fungus eaters, and the leaves are used to raise their fungi. Like any other "garden" a fungus garden can get infected and weedy fungi can sprout up. The ants, like all big organisms, harbor an internal community of symbiotic bacteria, and unlike disease organisms, these are part of their biology. You don't like to think about this but you harbor more bacteria within you body than you have cells making up your body. A recent study has found that Streptomyces is one such ant symbiotic bacterium, and just as the name suggests, it can make antibiotics and antifungals used to stop infections and weeds from damaging the crop of fungus. This doesn't surprise me at all because one of our students on our most recent rain forest ecology field trip conducted a nice little experiment that demonstrated that extracts of leaf-cutter ants have strong antibiotic properties. Here's a link for more information on leaf-cutter ants.
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Showing posts with label leaf cutter ants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leaf cutter ants. Show all posts
Symbioses - Bacteria & leaf-cutter ants
Leaf-cutter ants are one of the most fascinating organisms you encounter in the tropical rain forest. 
Watching a river of little leaf pieces bobbing and weaving along a little path only to disappear underground is an amazing sight. Most people assume leaf-cutter ants are herbivores, plant-eaters, but no, they are fungivores, fungus eaters, and the leaves are used to raise their fungi. Like any other "garden" a fungus garden can get infected and weedy fungi can sprout up. The ants, like all big organisms, harbor an internal community of symbiotic bacteria, and unlike disease organisms, these are part of their biology. You don't like to think about this but you harbor more bacteria within you body than you have cells making up your body. A recent study has found that Streptomyces is one such ant symbiotic bacterium, and just as the name suggests, it can make antibiotics and antifungals used to stop infections and weeds from damaging the crop of fungus. This doesn't surprise me at all because one of our students on our most recent rain forest ecology field trip conducted a nice little experiment that demonstrated that extracts of leaf-cutter ants have strong antibiotic properties. Here's a link for more information on leaf-cutter ants.
Watching a river of little leaf pieces bobbing and weaving along a little path only to disappear underground is an amazing sight. Most people assume leaf-cutter ants are herbivores, plant-eaters, but no, they are fungivores, fungus eaters, and the leaves are used to raise their fungi. Like any other "garden" a fungus garden can get infected and weedy fungi can sprout up. The ants, like all big organisms, harbor an internal community of symbiotic bacteria, and unlike disease organisms, these are part of their biology. You don't like to think about this but you harbor more bacteria within you body than you have cells making up your body. A recent study has found that Streptomyces is one such ant symbiotic bacterium, and just as the name suggests, it can make antibiotics and antifungals used to stop infections and weeds from damaging the crop of fungus. This doesn't surprise me at all because one of our students on our most recent rain forest ecology field trip conducted a nice little experiment that demonstrated that extracts of leaf-cutter ants have strong antibiotic properties. Here's a link for more information on leaf-cutter ants.
Little ants bring big rainforest down to size
Rain forest is one great place for viewing interesting biological interactions. And one little thing about the tropics is pretty easy to remember, ants are everywhere. This field station is home to over 500 species according to the experts. But without question one of the most prominent and common of these are the leaf cutter ants (Atta). Leaf cutter ants do not eat leaves, although in their millions they are one of the biggest "herbivores" in the rain forest. Piece by piece they carry the canopy back into their subterranean nest to cultivate a very specific fungus, which reciprocates being so well cared for and fed by providing the ants with food. And so you do not have to walk very far to view the highly amusing parades of workers carrying pieces of tree leaves to their nest. Out bound workers rush by to get more leaf pieces. Larger ants are soldiers protecting the workers, and if you watch closely you'll see "riders", somewhat smaller ants riding along on many of the leaf pieces. This peculiar behavior functions to protect the riders from parasitic flies who seek to lay eggs on workers returning to the nest.
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