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Ants use their senses of smell and taste to
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University of Georgia scientists have discovered a protein
in fire ants that may lead to a new way of using their own
biology
against them.
The protein is linked to red imported fire ants’ senses of
smell and taste.
“We discovered two variants of a protein found in fire
ants and noticed that one was found only in multiple-queen
colonies,”
said Ken Ross, an entomologist with the UGA College of
Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences.
“That’s what piqued our interest two and a half years
ago,” Ross said. “It made us wonder whether this
protein
could affect the social behavior and structure of the
colony.”
The Secrets Lie in the
DNA
To unravel the mysteries of this unfamiliar protein, UGA
sought
funding from the National Science Foundation and hired Michael
Krieger, an evolution biologist from the University of Lausanne
in Switzerland.
Krieger, an expert in the molecular biology of ants, began
working to sequence the protein gene.
“I isolated the protein and used this information to
determine
the DNA sequence of the gene,” Krieger said. “Once I
got the gene, then we could really get to work.”
Krieger and Ross cross-referenced the protein’s DNA with other
DNA sequences in a national data bank.
“We were able to find similar proteins, and that’s how
we deduced that this particular protein is a type of
odorant-binding
protein,” Ross said.
The DNA sequence revealed the protein is related to the ants’
senses of taste and smell. “We found that this protein
allows
the ant to capture odors from its environment and transport them
to the neuroreceptor,” Krieger said. “Basically, it
helps the ant sense its environment.”
Controlling Ants’ Senses
Ants use their senses of smell and taste to regulate the
number
of queens in colonies and regulate the social structure.
“We don’t know how the protein affects the abilities of
different ants to smell and taste,” Ross said. “But
we know the ants smell and taste queens, recognize them
individually
and either accept or don’t accept them as egg-laying queens. And
now we’ve discovered a protein that is likely involved in this
process.”
As with most scientific research, the outcome could have been
much different.
“It could have turned out to be a protein that regulates
the numbers of segments in the ants’ antenna and that wouldn’t
have been useful,” Ross said. “As it turned out, it
made perfect sense. This doesn’t rule out that there are other
genes involved in the ants’ sensory process. There are likely
to be. But this one is very important in terms of regulating the
social behavior.”
Ross admits this was a risky project.
“The probability of finding the gene that codes for this
protein was actually very low, so we’re very pleased that it
turned
out,” he said. “There are a lot of things that could
have gone wrong. But, after all, we got the funding from NSF
because
this project was a risky one.”
How many queens are
there?
To continue research into the protein’s potential, Ross and
Krieger need more time and more funding.
“It could be applied as a pest control method if we can
bind an artificial compound that competes with the natural
pheromone,
interrupting the ants’ senses,” said Krieger. “This
way we could make the ants see and smell queens that aren’t there
by sending them false signals. This would disturb the whole
social
organization.”
If the ants smelled the presence of too many queens, Krieger
said, they would get agitated and begin killing other ants in
the colony.
The researchers also found the newly identified gene in other
fire ants found in South American and the United States.
“It’s a rather general phenomenon we’ve found in fire
ants, but it has unbelievable potential,” said Ross.
