Little Souls Turned into Zombies

Yusra Binte Sikandar

Freshman

School of Life Sciences

Independent University, Bangladesh

June 8th, 2017

What first comes into your mind when you read the phrase “zombie apocalypse”? You surely get flashes of movies like World War Z or Zombieland. Yes, this theme has been used in intriguing ways to enrich fictional universes. But coming back to reality, have you ever heard of an ant-zombie apocalypse? Well, now that isn’t something that we get to hear about every day.

Imagine you are this little ant who, while foraging through the forest, instead of following your troop, picks up another path to saunter along because your mind suddenly tells you to. You start to have an irresistible urge to climb the nearest stalk you witness and just rest under a cool leaf.

Next, you find that you have thrust your mandibles (ant jaws) into the midrib (the central vein of a leaf) of your leaf with utter delectation. You are locked in this position until you die a few days. Congratulations, you have completed the process of turning into this vicious little zombie. Like any good zombie, you then remember to turn other members of your brethren into zombies too. Spooky, isn’t it?

Fungal fruiting body that has emerged from a dead ant. David Hughes, Penn State University

The ant-zombie apocalypse is actually the result of an infection by a fungus of the genus Ophiocordyceps. Multiple species of ants can be infected, with each ant species having its own specific fungus species. Upon penetration of the ant’s exoskeleton, the fungi release powerful chemicals into its hemolymph (the insect equivalent of blood) which allow it to take over the ant’s nervous system. There is nothing much to do after the little soul has been possessed by the fungi’s evil enchantment. The fungi now call the shots.

Can you just imagine your precious life being controlled by someone else? Yes, very creepy. This is not the end of the torture. After commanding the ant to climb up a stalk and bite into a leaf, the selfish fungi kill it, and start to grow right through and out of the ant’s head, resulting in a structure known as the fruiting body. The fruiting body contains large round fungal spores which spray themselves onto the forest floor to “zombify” other ants. For those who are not familiar with the process of fungal reproduction, fungi actually reproduce via producing spores, which in this case can infect ants.

Although entire ant colonies are easily wiped out by this fungus, it is not all doom and gloom for the ants. The ants have evolved ways to tackle this problem and ingeniously defend themselves through practicing “social immunity”. Healthy ants actively clean their nests and throw out dead, infected individuals in order to sustain a healthy environment and prevent disease transmission.

So while we are making fictional movies on human zombies, these helpless ants are being turned into zombies in real life. Perhaps we should try making movies on ant-zombies the next time. Much more realistic!

For Yusra, biology has always been a magnet of interest. She has always wanted to know the why's and how's of the living world. Being a future microbiologist, she looks forward to doing research on microbial interactions with human lives.