Wielding Microbe Against Microbe - New Antibiotic Discovered
As the southern pine beetle moves through the forest boring tunnels inside the bark of trees, it brings with it both a helper and a competitor. The helper is a fungus that the insect plants inside the tunnels as food for its young. But also riding along is a tiny, hitchhiking mite, which likewise carries a fungus for feeding its own larvae. Now the picture of this peculiar, millennia-old arrangement has grown even more curious. Writing in the Oct.
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Filed under: Biology on October 3rd, 2008