Posted on 08/10/2017 12:45:23 PM PDT by Red Badger
Despite what you might've seen in 1950s monster movies, it's difficult to raise mutant ants. For years biologists have altered the genetics of organisms as varied as mice and rice. Mutant fruit flies are a laboratory staple. But ants' complex life cycle hampered efforts to grow genetically engineered ants — until now.
On Thursday, two independent research teams described their work deleting ant genes. Two papers chronicling the first mutant ants appeared in the journal Cell, along with a third study that altered ant behavior using an insect brain hormone.
Claude Desplan, a New York University biologist and an author of one of the studies, said that, as far as he could tell, these ants are “the first mutant in any social insect.”
Ants have complex social roles, even though members of a colony are genetically very similar. Females may be egg-laying queens or sterile workers, colony cleaners or fierce soldiers. Males, who are little more than sperm-delivery systems with wings, appear only seasonally. To ensure the mutant genes carry on, “you need to go through the queen,” Desplan said. “It is not so easy to make queens.”
“There's a lot of interesting biologic questions that you can study with ants that you can’t study with fruit flies or even mice,” said Rockefeller University biologist Daniel Kronauer, an author of the other mutant-ant study. If you throw a thousand fruit flies in a bucket of dirt, maybe they'll fight or copulate, he said. But that's about it. Do the same with ants and they'll set to work digging, caring for broods and foraging. What's more, the insects are prime targets for studies of epigenetics, the external factors that toggle genes on and off....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Mutant ants in the pants.
Just what the world needs, mutant ants.
The naturally-evolved kind are troublesome enough. Just sit on an anthill.
Make it interesting, make it a hill of fire ants....
Maybe scientists can use this technology to make something useful some day, like man-eating squirrels
It’s THEM!
Perhaps the bazooka will do the trick...
I know.
What could possibly go wrong?
Ever notice that actors in the old movies couldn’t shoot worth a crap, except the star?...................
Just wait til the ants start making nuclear weapons..................
Sounds like any late teen / early-twenties guy to me.
They won’t need to make nuclear weapons if the Democrats just give them some.
Waiting for the HAIL ANTS graphic and the Kent Brockman quote, “I for one welcome our new insect overlords.”
Make me a sergeant in charge of the booze!
Way way way older than that .......
My wife says I’m a still a teenager..... :^)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.