Food security for leaf-cutting ants: Workers and their fungus garden reject endophyte invaders (w/Video)

New diseases directly affect human survival and food security, especially as population density climbs. Leaf-cutting ants, one of a few groups of social insects to cultivate crops, have harvested plant material to fertilize their underground fungal gardens for ~50 million years. New results from the Smithsonian show that both the ants and their fungal crop actively combat fungi coming into the nest inside leaves, thus ensuring the health of their mutualism.

Read the whole article on Physorg

More from Physorg