{"id":23390,"date":"2018-06-20T14:36:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T18:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=23390"},"modified":"2018-06-20T15:57:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T19:57:48","slug":"the-science-behind-zombie-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/the-science-behind-zombie-ants\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science Behind Zombie Ants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

De Bekker and her students study a group of carpenter ants in UCF’s Parasitic Behavior Manipulation Lab. (Photo by Miles Zhang)<\/p><\/div>\n

Biology Assistant Professor Charissa de Bekker is working to figure out how a fungus is manipulating and killing ants.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0zombie invasion is happening in Central Florida, but humans aren\u2019t the ones at risk. Rather, some of nature\u2019s tiniest creatures \u2014 carpenter ants \u2014 are the victims.<\/p>\n

Since 2016,\u00a0biology<\/a>\u00a0Assistant Professor Charissa de Bekker,\u00a0Ph.D., has been studying zombie ants in UCF\u2019s\u00a0Parasitic Behavior Manipulation Lab<\/a>\u00a0and the phenomenon that occurs when a fungal infection takes over the ants\u2019 brains, kills the insects and uses their bodies to grow more parasites.<\/p>\n

In a recent study, de Bekker and three co-authors from Pennsylvania State University found uninfected ants are unable to detect zombie ants within their nest since the fungus remains dormant at this time. Normal ants do not avoid or encourage the infected ants to leave, and in some cases they even share food until their final moments.<\/p>\n

De Bekker and her team of graduate and undergraduate students specifically study how\u00a0Ophiocordyceps fungi\u00a0turns\u00a0the\u00a0Camponotus floridanus species of\u00a0carpenter ants\u00a0into zombies. Parasites affect host behaviors in multiple ways, yet researchers do not understand how they are able to do this, de Bekker says.<\/p>\n

\u201cLearning more about this will allow us to better understand [parasites\u2019] effects on their hosts, the ecosystems they are part of and also provide us with strategies to battle them,\u201d de Bekker says. \u201cThe zombie ants display one of the most pronounced behavioral manipulation and are therefore an excellent model.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Bekker\u2019s work not only contributes to the science of ants, parasites and hosts, but also has the potential to uncover more about the bioactive compounds of Ophiocordyceps fungi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, fungi have an impressive track record of producing all kinds of compounds that are extensively used in medicine and industry,\u201d says de Bekker. \u201cThis group of fungi has hardly been studied, so in our quest to find how these fungi manipulate ants, we might find all kinds of interesting compounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

by Nicole Dudenhoefer ’17<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biology Assistant Professor Charissa de Bekker is working to figure out how a fungus is manipulating and killing ants. A\u00a0zombie invasion is happening in Central Florida, but humans aren\u2019t the ones at risk. Rather, some of nature\u2019s tiniest creatures \u2014 carpenter ants \u2014 are the victims. Since 2016,\u00a0biology\u00a0Assistant Professor Charissa de Bekker,\u00a0Ph.D., has been studying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":23398,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,38,13,5377,28,29],"tags":[612,3535,5174],"class_list":["post-23390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology-departments","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-research","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-charissa-de-bekker","tag-ucf-department-of-biology","tag-zombie-ants"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Science Behind Zombie Ants - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/the-science-behind-zombie-ants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Science Behind Zombie Ants - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Biology Assistant Professor Charissa de Bekker is working to figure out how a fungus is manipulating and killing ants. A\u00a0zombie invasion is happening in Central Florida, but humans aren\u2019t the ones at risk. Rather, some of nature\u2019s tiniest creatures \u2014 carpenter ants \u2014 are the victims. 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