Like humans, ants use bacteria to make their gardens grow

Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities. Here's a new one to add to the list: the ant farmers, like their human counterparts, depend on nitrogen-fixing bacteria to make their gardens grow. The finding, reported this week (Nov. 20) in the journal Science, documents a previously unknown symbiosis between ants and bacteria and provides insight into how leaf-cutter ants have come to dominate the American tropics and subtropics...

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