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INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION. "Polyergus species are obligate social parasites, wholly dependent on the host (enslaved) species to carry out all of the tasks necessary for colony function (foraging, maintenance, brood rearing). This form of social parasitism is unusual among ants but has evolved several times independently in the ant subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae." https://lnkd.in/dBuAyKw View in LinkedIn

THREE SLAVE SPECIES. "Slave making ants of the Polyergus lucidus Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) complex enslave 3 different Formica species, Formica archboldi, F. dolosa, and F. pallidefulva, in northern Florida." https://lnkd.in/dBuAyKw View in LinkedIn

POLYERGUS MASTERS AND FORMICA SLAVES. "The slave-making Polyergus ants initiate the parasitism by raiding the Formica nests and carrying off the pupal brood; these will do all the chores for the Polyergus master ants including cleaning their nest, foraging for food, and feeding the brood and queen." http://www.jstor.org/stable/29774232?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents View in LinkedIn

QUEEN'S MILK. "Tetramorium inquilinum lives entirely on food regurgitated by its hosts, even the liquid meant for the host queen. Nourished and nurtured well by its hosts, Tetramorium inquilinum has high fecundity. Older individuals lay an average of two eggs every minute." https://lnkd.in/dGEyArn View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this consideration of slavery in ant colonies, an extreme form of parasitism. Tetramorium inquilinum surely is the poster child of the most extreme adaptation to this lifestyle, with the body of the queen stripped down to bare essentials while she rides on the back of the host queen: an unforgettable image. The use of chemical mind control of the slaves chillingly reminds us that an Orwellian dystopia is not limited to the human condition. View in LinkedIn

LIVING CHARIOTS. "Tetramorium inquilinum constantly sends chemical signals that trick host ants into accepting them as full members of the colony. Being ectoparasitic, Tetramorium inquilinum spends most of its adult life clinging to the backs of its hosts, especially queens. As many as eight have been observed piggy-backing onto a single host queen, leaving her immobile." https://lnkd.in/dGEyArn View in LinkedIn

ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION. "Ray's colleague and friend, Abed Chaudhury, a researcher at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, suggested another mechanism, based on two phenomena. The first was DNA homology: He suggested that small homologous sequences of Arabidopsis genome could be translated into RNA." https://lnkd.in/dv6b49K View in LinkedIn

POSSIBLE EXPLANATION. "In a communication to Nature, Ray proposed that DNA heteroduplexes had conserved the wild-type alleles; fragments of chromosomes carried on the two independent parental DNA chains were used in a form of mismatch repair to restore the mutants to wild-type, and could account for some of the reversion." http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/26000/title/Mendel-upended-/ View in LinkedIn

IMPORTANT FINDING. "A non-Mendelian system of inheritance has "enormous implications," says Lolle, with the potential to unseat nearly two centuries of assumptions in genetic research. Suddenly during their conversation, the reporter blurted out "someone just broke the embargo - wow, this is going to be bigger than Dolly! The paper was a really Big Bang." https://lnkd.in/dv6b49K View in LinkedIn

PARADIGM BUSTER. "If you take this mutant Arabidopsis, which has two copies of the altered gene, let it seed and then plant the seeds, 90 percent of the offspring will look like the parent, but 10 percent will look like the normal grandparents. Our genetic training tells us that's just not possible. This challenges everything we believe." https://lnkd.in/dtXtGxH View in LinkedIn