New quartet of ant genomes sequenced
Ants are dominant members of almost all terrestrial ecosystems; they are master architects, voracious predators, farmers, ranchers, scavengers and come in a fantastic array of shapes, sizes and colors. Almost all humans have come into contact with ants in one fashion or another. There are fire ants in back yards, Argentine ants in kitchens, harvester ants in children's ant farms, and trains of leaf-cutter ants dismantling forests in documentaries. Ants originated more than 100 million years ago, their ecological dominance and evolutionary success, complex societies, variation in form and function, and the diverse roles they play in ecosystems, collectively contribute to the scientific rationale behind scientists' efforts to sequence their genomes.