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Convulsions and climbing behavior: After the fungus enters the ant, it propagates, and fungal cells are found beside the host's brain. Once the population is of sufficient size, the fungus secretes compounds and takes over the central nervous system (CNS), which enables it to manipulate the ant to reach the forest floor and climb up the vegetation.
The ant clamps its jaws around the plant in a "death grip" and following, mycelia grow from the ant's feet and stitch them to the surface of the plant. [9] The spores released from the ant carcass fall to the ground and infect other ants that come in contact with the spores so that this cycle continues. [ 10 ]
O. camponoti-balzani infects ants, and eventually kills the hosts after they move to an ideal location for the fungus to spread its spores. This has earned the species names such as “zombie fungus”, given the fungus has been observed to cause its hosts to bite hard into the substrate it stands on, so that the fungus can then stably grow. [2]
The fungus Escovopsis is a parasite in fungus-growing ant colonies that can greatly harm the fungal gardens through infection, [22] and the bacterium Pseudonocardia has a mutualistic relationship with ants. The relationship is thought to have been used by the ants for millions of years, co-evolving to produce the right type of antibiotics.
The scale of the farming done by fungus-farming ants can be compared to human's industrialized farming. [5] [11] [78] [79] A colony can "[defoliate] a mature eucalyptus tree overnight". [33] The cutting of leaves to grow fungus to feed millions of ants per colony has a large ecological impact in the subtropical areas in which they reside. [7]
A potent chemical in cordyceps can thwart cancer cell growth
Some host specialist entomopathogenic fungi have even evolved mechanisms of behavioral manipulation (e.g. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis - Zombie ant fungus) of their hosts. [7] These fungi hijack the insect nervous systems using various secondary metabolites and manipulate insect behavior to move the infected insect to a place which is ...
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