linkedin post 2016-01-10 06:08:15

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ALEXANDER FLEMING discovered penicillin 77 years ago (1928). He warned against resistance from careless overuse in his Nobel speech, and today we face widespread resistance. Leafcutter ants have been using antibiotics for over 50 million years, and because they also farm the antibiotic bacteria, which co-evolve with the pathogens, they have no persistent resistance. View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2016-01-09 06:41:30

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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues with Leafcutter ants. These ancient and sophisticated creatures have figured out advanced fungal crop culture methods, including using living antibiotic cultures that co-evolve with the crop pathogens so resistance is never a persistent problem. They also clonally select the fungal crop for advantageous features. A peek at an advanced society. View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2016-01-09 07:40:06

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DIVISION OF LABOR. "The necrotrophic parasitic fungus Escovopsis threatens the ants' food source, thus is a constant danger to the ants. The waste transporters and waste-heap workers are the older, more dispensable leafcutter ants, ensuring the healthier and younger ants can work on the fungal garden." https://lnkd.in/ej4XkBq View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2016-01-09 07:35:53

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HYGENE PROCEDURES. "A cast of small Atta workers is dedicated largely to the tending and cleaning of garden...Sequestration into discrete garden units also permits the ants to respond locally to disease, for example by sealing off an infected garden and thus prevent a pandemic spread of a disease throughout a nest." http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0012668 View in LinkedIn
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