Ants and Man

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fcat

Arachnodemon
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"The ants produce 112 organic compounds, 23 of them unknown to science,"

Jaw dropping! Thanks for sharing.
 
8 legged

8 legged

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A real, functioning society! Brilliant!
And we are oversized parasites. Of course we help each other too, but not as unconditionally as these little creatures! Thank you very much for this reading material!
 
DomGom TheFather

DomGom TheFather

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8 legged said:
A real, functioning society! Brilliant!
And we are oversized parasites. Of course we help each other too, but not as unconditionally as these little creatures! Thank you very much for this reading material!
Click to expand...
Dude. They're all related.
I could make the same argument. I doubt the termites would think ants are so great. How about a rival ant colony? They're doing what nature does. Still, pretty cool.
 
The Snark

The Snark

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@HooahArmy Perhaps you or your colleagues might shed some light here. Pardon me for being very vague. I read a technical paper a while back that was about the error of using a singular antibiotic that bacterium can target in an experimental fashion until a genetic mutation is achieved that is resistant. The experiment failures die off, the successes become the new paradigm.
The paper dived in to technical details of molecular structures and quickly lost me. But the jist was what the ants in the OP of this thread are doing. Bombarding bacterium with multiple similar antibiotic (some technical term) chemicals that misdirect the genetic adaptation.
The paper was all about the human error of a singular antibiotic where nature, ants in this case, utilize this misdirection where multiple responses, some or most being ineffective, some marginally effective, some entirely unrelated, with the cumulative effect that genetic adaptation and developed resistance is weakened, watered down, resulting in actually making the overall genetic modification of the bacterium more susceptible.
This ring any bells in your circles?

As an aside.
I'm recalling a pathogen outbreak we had in the hospital, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a major problematic organism in ants. that had us running in circles trying to find the origin cause. In hindsight pretty stupid on our part in that we didn't utilize objectivity. The organism turned up in PT, the floor, OB, and dietary. Objectivity should have clued us as the outbreaks coincided with a burn patient repeatedly returning for ongoing therapy. I finally traced the pathogen origin to the hydrotherapy bath in PT after over three weeks of sleuthing.
On the bright side it was a case study in how humans, even with all infection control measures in place, can inadvertently transmit bacteria. The burn patient's wife visiting a friend in OB for a prolonged stay was the one that threw us into a tailspin.
 
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HooahArmy

HooahArmy

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About to ask nearest soldier to lick her sore knee... it's Hooah Army!

This is an interesting topic, and one I want to research more about due to my background in chemistry and the sciences. For all you readers who are cusious about antibiotic resistance and how it works in general, I'll give a quick overview so we all can be on the same page.
Let's look at this quick and easy diagram. Here, Antiobiotic A, as we'll call it, is administered to a group of bacterium. 'X' represents a death, but 'O' represents a survival of a bacillus due to an immunity brought on byrandom assortment in genes. Due to geneological development, no two organisms are the same, even when related, and mutations natrually occur in populations to demonstrate this geneological recombination. It's the reason why all humans don't look the same; those with mutations that favor an environment live and pass them on to their offspring, just like the samples here.

Antibiotic A admistered 1st time
Bacteria: X X X X X X X X O O
Here, we have the antibiotic killing 8 out 10 bacteria. The 2 that lived had immunities due to random assortment of genes; nature just gave them mutations by chance. In reality, in populations of zillions of bacteria, on a tiny few might have resistance, so this sample here is just slightly representative.

Antiobiotic A administered 2nd time
Bacteria: X X X X X X O O O O
Ooh! Look here! The two survivors from the last group reproduced! Their offpring are now resistant!

Antibiotic A admistered 3rd time
Bacteria: X X O O O O O O O O
What has happened now?! This is an example of how antibiotic resistance happens (in an easy-to-understand form). Bacteria with natrual resistances from mutations survive and pas on their resistances to offspring, making the next generations less susceptable to the antibiotic if it's used repeatedly.

But what if we do this?
Antibiotic B admistered right after:
Bacteria: X X X X X X X X O
The bacteria from the last example were developing immunities from A, but had no exposure to B, hence B got most of them. However, a few will still survive since that is the nature of mutation; someone among billions will always be resistant to something.

Now let's take a look at the termites, now that folks know about antibiotic resistance or know a bit more. Here are some things that should be occuring:
1. The termites in one nest should all be relatively identical. Of the 112 compounds they produce, they should mostly be the same due to their relationship. For example, my own saliva would look a lot like my siblings in compound, since we're related. As a result, we might call the stuff produced by the ants as Antibiotic A.
2. If the ants are producing 112 compounds, they can't be equated to 112 different drugs, since its questionable to state that creatures can secrete special compounds on command in something like healing saliva. The ants are slobering into their buddies' wounds or they're not. Antibiotic A or none. These are the options. The compounds within work together, and there's bound to be pathogens that are going to be natrually immune.
3. In time, the ants' saliva will be able to save less lives as pathogens evolve and reproduce. However, the ants may as well be evolving as well. Those with mutations in their spit to render it more potent could save more lives. However, since worker ants CAN'T REPRODUCE (only the queen does this, please!), genetic mutations must occur and remain with the queen over many courses of offspring for new forms of better spit to be effective.
4. This then opens a can of worms. The pathogens are gonna be evolving. The queen must produce workers with variations in saliva to keep her gang's healing effective. This then pits the genes of the queen versus that of the generations of pathogens her crew is exposed to.

This was a great read! I'm still so curious to learn more. But here's a bonus to add to the comcept above:
Why do so many critters lick their wounds?
Answer: Studies have shown that saliva has been proven to have healing properties through natrual body bacteria, enzymes, proteins, and a whole slew of other things that compete with or kill foreign bacteria. A critter's own bacteria and secretions can kill hostile bacteria, or their bacteria can grow in the wound and outcompete the foreign bac that is viewed as an invader. Unsually, if an organism is healthy, it can recognize its own bacteria and not attack it-- You can bite your cheek and not get an infection and die; bite your pal and he/she might get an infection. Your own bacteria will remain mostly untouched and can grow a bit, preventing foreign bacteria from gaining resouces in a wound.
This concept along with the compounds in the ants' saliva can be working together to helpheal wounds on licked ants.

My head is buzzing. Feel free to ask more questions or follow up.
 
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