Month: September 2022

PORTABLE PHARMACY. "The ants maintain their fungal gardens by providing plant material to the fungal crop, whereas the bacterial symbionts, which often localize with specialized anatomical structures on the ant, provide small-molecule chemical defenses that suppress microfungal pathogens in the genus Escovopsis and other potential competitors." Actinobacteria make the majority of our antibiotics today. https://lnkd.in/eFjHbSD View in LinkedIn

NO ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE. "Unlike the ant, fungi, and bacteria symbiosis, present day antibiotics often produce resistant types of pathogens. It is thought that the ant colonies do not produce antibiotic resistant molds because of the high diversity of the bacteria and as the two evolve together the parasitic mold will not evolve a resistance." https://lnkd.in/eneZexX View in LinkedIn

ANOTHER MONOCULTURE. "Another method to cultivate only its native strain of Pseudonocardia is that the ant's feces contain incompatibility chemicals which select only for its resident fungus. There are also behavior cues which suggest that the ants physically pick out other types of fungus." https://lnkd.in/eneZexX View in LinkedIn

LEAFCUTTER ant video. See the hygiene patrol ants dusted in white antibiotic producing filamentous bacteria, and how they were discovered. Lovely story. https://lnkd.in/evrywcT View in LinkedIn

THUS WE LEAVE these strange and exotic creatures whose agricultural skills seem to exceed our own. Other ant societies are equally interesting and curious, and in the future we will visit the stunted parasite queen who rides on her host queen's shoulders like a ghastly She (H. Rider Haggard), while. being fed by her captors. View in LinkedIn

SELF-PROPAGATING. "Prions are proteins that acquire alternative conformations that become self-propagating." (Stanley B. Prisoner, thought leader of prions). Without DNA, this protein has crossed the line of generally accepted definitions of life, and sparks the aspirations of many who wish to make self-propagating and evolving protein robots. https://lnkd.in/e5DP4zX View in LinkedIn

PRIONS EVOLVE WITHOUT DNA. "Prions are the clearest example of the evolutionary ability of nonliving agents. It is now known that as the abnormal prions replicate, variants can be created. And when those variants are transferred to a new host, natural selection will eventually choose the most virulent and aggressive variants...prions may develop drug resistance." https://lnkd.in/efuQiwq View in LinkedIn

PRION MUTATIONS. "The existence of prion strains raises questions of how hereditable biological information can be encrypted in a molecule other than nucleic acid. There is mounting evidence that the diversity of prions is enciphered in the conformation of the PrP(Sc) protein." Conformation is simply the shape of the molecule. https://lnkd.in/ezndu2V View in LinkedIn

QUASI-SPECIES. "The prion protein is not a clone, it is a quasi-species that can create different protein strains even in the same animal. The abnormal prion proteins multiply by converting normal prion proteins." https://lnkd.in/eRi8WNN View in LinkedIn

PRIONS AS SELF-INTERESTED COLLABORATORS. "Prions exhibit collaborative behaviours that benefit themselves, as a class of protein isoforms, as well as their hosts." https://lnkd.in/eNrKfp8 View in LinkedIn