Helplessly Self-Aware Zombies

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Helplessly Self-Aware Zombies

Light seeping through the canopy dances among the freckled shadows on the forest floor. She meanders out from the cavernous, dew laden green, each step seeming to have a mind of its own. To an outsider bullet ant, she moves without purpose, and even she isn’t sure where she’s going. Aching muscles jerk her toward a plump shoot, and away from a tasty morsel for the colony. She climbs, her muscles quivering and separating from each other, working together but not by design. Her jaw locks in a death-grip as she clings, motionless to the stem. She is about 25 centimeters above ground. She feels a terrible tingle on the top of her head. She has one last moment to reflect on the present, because she has no sense of time. Her exoskeleton ruptures. A soft stalk creeps tentatively out of her head into the humidity and perfect temperature of 25 centimeters above ground. The bullet ant is no more. Her death becomes a body of nutrient packed life for Ophiocordyceps, a fungus that preys on thriving insect populations.

Until Maridel Frederickson, the mechanisms for fungal invasion and zombification of ants were a mystery. During her research she used a special microscope to julienne infected ants into slices 50 nanometers thick. She teamed up with computer scientist Danny Chen. Danny created artificial intelligence that could analyze the slices and differentiate between ant and fungal bits. From the data we can infer a different point of view on the same story.

Ophiocordyceps begins life anew as a single cell floating to the forest floor from the old sporophyte protrusion. A foraging ant stumbles unfortunately across it. The single cell infects the ant, floating around in the bloodstream and dividing into further, independent cells, using the blood for food resources. After a while the cells work together, building connecting tubes to each other to exchange nutrients and to communicate. The fungus is forming a structure inside the body of the ant. Now it invades the ant’s muscles, through cell penetration or through expanding into the spaces between each cell. The ant’s muscles begin to atrophy. The fungus stays away from the brain of the ant, although filling the rest of the head, severing its connection and control over its body. It is hypothesized the fungus secretes chemicals to contract the ant muscles. The helplessly self-aware ant lives as if in a nightmare. The muscles in the jaw are the last to atrophy as they lock in place. The ant clings about 25 centimeters above ground. Here the temperature and humidity is precisely conducive to the protrusion of the fungal fruiting body from the ant’s exoskeleton. And then it is over.

The rainforests contain a plethora of insect species. There are dozens of cordyceps parasite species, each specifically targeting a different species of insect. These cordyceps species positively affect insect diversity in the wild in preventing any insect group from gaining an advantage. And the rainforests tiny beauties, are maintained by their vile secrets.

Posted by: "Takoda Nordoff (3).

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/how-the-zombie-fungus-takes-over-ants-bodies-to-control-their-minds/545864/