A few months ago we learned via an unintentionally leaked press release that a team of researchers lead by Nicole Gerardo and Cameron Currie had won a Roche Applied Sciences grant competition. The team will be sequencing the complete genome of 14 players from the ant/fungus/microbe co-evolutionary system, including three attine ants from different genera.
The announcement is now official.
An Acromyrmex queen, with brood, in the fungus garden
More like this
Now that I've grossed most of you out with my last week's pick, I think I'll go ahead and make this week's pest a little easier to look at.
Are viral and fungal infections always a bad thing?
Maybe not if you're a plant.
In fact, if you're a plant trying to grow in the hot (65°; C) soils of Yellowstone National Park, you're going to need all the help you can get.
100 years ago, American Chestnut trees grew up and down the East coast. Great wood, nommy nuts, awesome!