Supersoldier ants created in the lab by reactivating ancestral genes | Hacker News Reader

Supersoldier ants created in the lab by reactivating ancestral genes

physorg.com

40 pointsg3orge8 comments

Summary: certain ant species are shown to carry latent genes that produce supersoldier ants. This can be activated with hormones, or importantly, by certain nutritional or environmental conditions, even in species that are not known to produce supersoldiers normally. This implies applications elsewhere (for example, crops) where beneficial latent traits could be activated.

"The treated larvae grew to become large headed and jawed ants resembling supersoldiers."

If you gave a normal cat growth hormones, it might resemble a tiger. That doesn't mean it is one. That was the basis of my summary. I don't want to ridicule the research, and agree that this could have beneficial applications.

You missed a section:

'....normally develop into soldiers or workers depending on the levels of the "juvenile hormone": if levels are high the ants become soldiers, while if they are low they become the smaller worker ants. In the species that produce supersoldiers there is a second high threshold of the juvenile hormone, above which the larvae develop into the larger supersoldiers.'

If you gave a normal cat unchecked growth hormones it would not resemble a tiger - it would die. Its body is not designed to be that large - look at case reports of humans with growth disorders, they have all sorts of very serious issues simply from being larger than designed.

I don't see what I've supposedly missed. And my remark about the cat was just an example of things not necessarily being what they look like.

What you missed is that this hormone does not just generate disorganized growth (i.e. things grow but not necessarily in a way that properly supports the larger size).

Rather this hormone triggers a third type of development in this species, where the larger size of the animal is properly matched with a new type of behavior.

Summary: Treating ant larvae with growth hormones, produces big ants.

That's not a very good summary, as it glosses over the fact that these hormones are evidently activating a latent mechanism for producing a specific class of ant body fulfilling a niche role. They aren't just proportionately larger ants.

See my comment on the other summary.

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