THE association between farming ants and the fungus that they cultivate
involves a previously unrecognised bacterial partner, according to researchers
in Canada.
Cameron Currie and his colleagues at the University of Toronto found that a
powdery, whitish-grey crust sprinkled on the ants鈥� bodies is the bacterium
Streptomyces, not ant secretions as biologists had believed. The bacterium
produces potent antibiotics that target Escovopsis, a virulent fungal
parasite that attacks the ants鈥� gardens (Nature, vol 398, p 701).
All 22 species of fungus-farming ants that the team has examined carry the
bacterium.
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