Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence -- 48 million years old -- of a fungus that takes over the bodies and minds of ants. "The fungus, which is alive and well in forests today, latches on to carpenter ants as they cross the forest floor before returning to their nests high in the canopy," reports The Guardian.
Once inside, the fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, releases chemicals that cause the ants to leave the colony in search of leaves or fall from their high canopies onto leaves growing closer to the ground. A graphic description of the ensuing, gruesome death/zombification process follows:
In their last hours, infected ants move towards the underside of the leaf they are on and lock their mandibles in a 'death grip' around the central vein, immobilising themselves and locking the fungus in position. ... The fungus cannot grow high up in the canopy or on the forest floor, but infected ants often die on leaves midway between the two, where the humidity and temperature suit the fungus. Once an ant has died, the fungus sprouts from its head and produces a pod of spores, which are fired at night on to the forest floor, where they can infect other ants.
And if that vivid prose isn't enough for you, here's a video, courtesy the BBC.
via 'Zombie' Ants Taken Over by Ancient Parasitic Fungus.
Yow. That's disgusting. How much of our behavior is already controlled by microbes? Perhaps more than you think:
... the Human Microbiome Project points towards a possibility that human behavior may be controlled by the composition of the microbe population within a human body.[1]
We may be compelled to do some things we do by interactions that feed the needs of microbes. This is not intelligent control, this is the result of small local interactions resulting in larger scale behavior. Gut bacteria want sugar, for example, and have evolved to emit something that makes you crave sugar. That's a simple case, but it could get way more complicated with multiple organisms, multiple steps resulting in some complex behavior. Interesting thought, isn't it?
Remember that X-files episode where Mulder and Scully are trapped by fungus and are hallucinating? The episode is called "field trip". Art imitates life.
9 comments:
This is not as strange as it sounds. The Stanley Medical Research Institute (IV Effects of T. gondii on Behavior and Psychiatric Symptoms - link below) summarizes the studies on T. gondii, which causes impaired learning and memory in mice and rats.
Rats infected with T. gondii were more active and less fearful of cat urine than control rats. This would make the infected rat more likely than uninfected rats to be prey of cats allowing T. gondii to complete its life cycle within the predator cat.
This and other studies suggest that T. gondii has a specific affect in the brain of the affected rat. And, other studies have looked into T. gondii effect on humans.
http://www.stanleyresearch.org/dnn/LaboratoryofDevelopmentalNeurovirology/ToxoplasmosisSchizophreniaResearch/IVEffectsofTgondii/tabid/177/Default.aspx
I was controlled by mushrooms for a few hours once ;-)
Planet Earth is my favorite nature documentary series. I love this scene.
I know of a plant that makes you eat Oreo cookies , watch cartoons and forget to take out the garbage ;-)
Agree with you there. Amazing footage in the series.
I want to get Life, now. But I must make sure to buy the original BBC version, because David Attenborough easily beats any American narrator.
Half of the people in the USA are infected with T. gondii and there is no vaccine. Does it change the behavior of the infected pet too? Some of them really want to get in your face.
Perhaps, along with maybe an "the cat can't get me" attitude, which seems pervasive with a lot of things, not just traffic accidents.
But, it's nice to know that the "Relative risk of traffic accidents decreases with the duration of infection," if true.
Thank you for this correction. I conclude, then, that the key to reducing the risk of auto accidents due to lack of concentration if you are an infected male cat owner, is to consider your car to be a novel mating chamber.
Post a Comment