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Gut microbes in plant-eating ants help build tougher armor
Gut bacteria in a species of herbivorous ant play a major role in processing nutrients that allow the ants to build tough exoskeletons, an international team of researchers has found.
In the study, “Gut Bacteria Are Essential for Normal Cuticle Development in Herbivorous Turtle Ants,” which published Jan. 29 in Nature Communications, the researchers specifically broke down which components the bacteria contributed so their host could build a thicker armor. Steven Wang/Provided
Florida turtle ant.
When the researchers killed off the gut microbes in plant-eating turtle ants, their exoskeletons were only half as thick as normal turtle ants. The results reveal diverse roles that gut bacteria can play in organisms.
By Jeff Turner
Jan 28, 2021
Creighton University biochemistry researcher and assistant professor Lynne Dieckman, Ph.D., has been awarded a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
The five-year, $680,500 NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award will be utilized to gain a better understanding of how improper DNA replication and compaction can cause changes in gene expression in offspring, which can play a role in the onset of diseases such as cancer, cell death or developmental issues. In addition, a major goal of the project is to create a comprehensive learning environment for aspiring high school-aged and undergraduate scientists who will have significant roles in the research.
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IMAGE: On the left is a simulated image in which intracluster light is visible as a diffuse haze between discrete peaks of brightness the galaxies. In observations, as seen in. view more
Credit: Left image: Jesse Golden-Marx; simulation by The IllustrisTNG. Right image: Dark Energy Survey and Yuanyuan Zhang
A combination of observational data and sophisticated computer simulations have yielded advances in a field of astrophysics that has languished for half a century. The Dark Energy Survey, which is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has published a burst of new results on what s called intracluster light, or ICL, a faint type of light found inside galaxy clusters.
DOE/Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
A combination of observational data and sophisticated computer simulations have yielded advances in a field of astrophysics that has languished for half a century. The Dark Energy Survey, which is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has published a burst of new results on what s called intracluster light, or ICL, a faint type of light found inside galaxy clusters.
The first burst of new, precision ICL measurements appeared in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal in April 2019. Another appeared more recently in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. In a surprise finding of the latter, DES physicists discovered new evidence that ICL might provide a new way to measure a mysterious substance called dark matter.
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