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posted by n1 on Thursday November 12 2015, @08:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the bad-trip,-man dept.

A huge number of parasites can change the behavior of the organisms they infect. In some cases, parasites can even make their hosts display completely new behaviors. We understand very little about the mechanisms and pathways behind this interaction. To learn more, we investigated how a specific fungus changes the behavior of ants, by turning them into "zombie ants". The infected zombies climb high and latch onto twigs just before they die, which helps the fungus to spread its spores a further distance.

Our results suggest that the fungus takes over the brain, secreting LSD-like compounds, expressing proteins that change serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, and altering the ability to communicate with nearby ants. Our genome and transcriptome dataset, obtained using both field and lab techniques, allowed us for the first time to dive a bit deeper into the mechanisms used to regulate behavior. In the long run this work might even lead to discoveries related to human brain health.

Is this avenue of inquiry really advisable?


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  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday November 12 2015, @05:10PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Thursday November 12 2015, @05:10PM (#262227) Homepage

    " How Does a Parasite Create Zombie-like Behavior? "

    By controlling the mass-media! *Ba-dum tissss!*

    Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19 2015, @03:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19 2015, @03:48AM (#265245)