Plant diseases are becoming more and more threats to food production, and several of them are resistant to existing pesticides. A Danish study showed that even in places where insecticides are no longer used, ants can secrete compounds that effectively inhibit plant pathogens.
Recently, it was discovered that African four-legged ants carry compounds that can kill MRSA bacteria. This is a terrible bacteria because they are resistant to known antibiotics and can attack humans. It is thought that plants and food production are also threatened by resistant plant diseases. Therefore, plants can also benefit from the compounds produced by ants to protect themselves.
Recently, in a new study just published in the “Journal of Applied Ecology”, three researchers from Aarhus University reviewed the existing scientific literature and found a surprising number of ant glands and ant bacteria. These compounds can kill important plant pathogens. Therefore, the researchers suggest that people can use ants and their chemical defense “weapons” to protect agricultural plants.
Ants live in densely gregarious nests and are therefore exposed to high-risk disease transmission. However, they have evolved their own anti-disease drugs. Ants can secrete antibiotic substances through their glands and growing bacterial colonies.
”Ants are used to living in dense societies, so many different antibiotics have evolved to protect themselves and their groups. These compounds have a significant impact on a range of plant pathogens.” said Joachim Offenberg of the Institute of Biological Sciences at Aarhus University.
According to this research, there are at least three different ways to apply ant antibiotics: directly using live ants in plant production, simulating ant chemical defense compounds, and copying ants encoding antibiotic or bacterial genes and transferring these genes to plants.
Researchers have previously shown that carpenter ants that “move” to apple plantations can reduce the number of apples infected with two different diseases (apple head blight and rot). Based on this new research, they further pointed out the fact that ants may be able to show people a new and sustainable way to protect plants in the future.
Source: China Science News
Post time: Oct-08-2021