Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
In case you were wondering about the ant genomes that have been, are currently being, and are proposed be sequenced, Phil Ward and Juergen Gadau have curated a list. I found the database format difficult to navigate, so I’ve distilled the ant roster into a single table: The completed and in-progress genomes reflect economically important or [...]
We interrupt Army Ant Week to announce that a paper describing the Atta cephalotes leafcutter ant genome has just been published. I’ll report more on this research next week, once we take leave of the army ants. source: Suen G, Teiling C, Li L, Holt C, Abouheif E, et al. (2011) The Genome Sequence of [...]
A big day for ant science! Four new genomes are public. These genomes complement two already-released projects, bringing the total to six. Yes, six. A year ago we didn’t have one, and now the floodgates are open. Although these latest efforts are not the first ant genomes out, today’s announcement is in some respects more [...]
[correction: When the genome paper first emerged I stated that the genomes would not be made public. This impression- due to a lag time between online publication and data release- was erroneous, and I hope the authors accept my apology.] A few days have passed since the publication by Bonasio et al of the first [...]
The journal Science has just reported the first ant genome study. Well, the first ant genomes. A pair of them, from the Florida Carpenter Ant Camponotus floridanus and the Indian jumping ant Harpegnathos saltator, both study animals in the lab of Arizona State University’s Juergen Liebig. Abstract: The organized societies of ants include short-lived worker [...]
The genome sequence of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum was published today in PLoS. Concurrently, a set of supporting papers has come out in Insect Molecular Biology. This genome is significant for a number of reasons- it’s the first Hemipteran genome to be sequenced, aphids have an unusual reproductive cycle, and this particular species is [...]
A few months ago we learned via an unintentionally leaked press release that a team of researchers lead by Nicole Gerardo and Cameron Currie had won a Roche Applied Sciences grant competition. The team will be sequencing the complete genome of 14 players from the ant/fungus/microbe co-evolutionary system, including three attine ants from different genera. [...]
Big ant news today! Roche Applied Sciences is apparently funding the sequencing of a series of genomes- three ant and an array of fungal and microbial genomes- in an ambitious project to better understand the relationships among the players in the celebrated ant-fungus relationship. The sequencing project is headed by Nicole Gerardo of Emory University [...]
This weekend, Arizona State University is hosting a slate of myrmecologists to brainstorm on ant genomes. I’d link to the meeting information, but apparently the gathering is so informal that they’ve not given the event a web page. In any case, the topic is this: in the age of (relatively) cheap genomes, which ants should [...]
A personal weblog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Comments? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net
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