March 2, 2012

New Research Explores Bacteria's Role In Leafcutter Ants' Gardens

Leafcutter Ants are known for cutting leaves and carrying them as they march across tropical forests. However, this process is much more complex than it sounds. The story was this: Ants would eat the fungi and bacteria would be involved but the bacteria's role was never clear in this process... until now. New research has proven that the bacteria decomposes leaves, playing a major role in turning the leaves into nutrients which is important for buth fungi and ants. The ants brought leaves to their underground nests and from the leaves grew fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorous which was thought to be the ants source of nutrition. Incorporating bacteria into this relationship was hard. Researchers sequenced large genetic samples which allowed them to better examine the entire community of bacteria. From the bacteria, they examined proteins. Most of the garden bacteria were involved in breaking down simple sugars, indicating that perhaps fungi initially breaks down cellulose and the bacteria, in return partially digesting sugars that result in a variety of nutrients. "It's apparent that neither fungi nor bacteria work in isolation when it comes to leafcutter ant gardens, ... it's possible that the same goes for biomass conversion; perhaps both fungi and bacteria are needed to efficiently turn plants into biofuel." said Burnum, one of the co-authors of Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.

7 comments:

KTress said...

Your picture is really cool. I think this process by how leaf-cutter ants get nutrients from the leaves is very interesting. What do you think?

enkaysaini said...

aw the picture is so cute haha. and this seems very interesting especially the how the fungi and bacteria work together.

acavz said...

Really interesting how they benefit from one another

Shan said...

Yes, Kevin. I also think that it is very interesting how leaf-cutter ants get nutrients from the leaves as well as bacteria.

Jenai said...

This is very interesting both organisms benefit from each other by one being the transporter and the other by breaking down the nutrients.

vas said...

oh wow this is so interesting! very detailed too, really good job

Fariha said...

This just goes to show how everything works together in nature. Very cool!