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Tapeworm hijacks worker ants, giving them queen-like metabolism and longer lives
A tapeworm fundamentally changes the lives of ants: Workers of the species Temnothorax nylanderi infected with the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis live several times longer than their uninfected nestmates.
Summary
A tapeworm fundamentally changes the lives of ants: Workers of the species Temnothorax nylanderi infected with the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis live several times longer than their uninfected nestmates. They are also less active, and their metabolism becomes more similar in some respects to that of queens. A new study by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), published in the journal BMC Genomics, reveals the molecular basis of this unusual effect.
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