Sebenarnya saya ingin memasukkan artikel ini kedalam kategori "All About Plants". Tetapi ternyata Jamur tidak diklasifikasikan kedalam tumbuh-tumbuhan. Sehingga saya masukkan kedalam Kategoori "Did You Know?".. Ya,. apakah anda mengetahui, bahwa ada beberapa jamur yang mampu menyetir/mengendalikan semut bak layaknya pengendara mengendalikan kendaraannya?
Jamur dikelompokkan ke dalam kingdom (kerajaan) Mycota. Sementara itu tumbuhan dikelompokkan ke dalam kingdom plantae. Jadi dapat disimpulkan bahwa jamur bukanlah tumbuhan.
Dari berbagai ciri - ciri yang ada, salah satu ciri dari jamur yang membedakannya dengan tumbuhan adalah tidak berfotosintesis, karena jamur tidak memiliki klorofil (zat hijau daun). Jamur menyerap makanannya berupa bahan organik dari organisme lain. Jamur memperoleh makanan melalui dua cara, yaitu saprofit atau parasit. Jamur saprofit menyerap organik yang telah terurai. Jamur ini biasanya hidup pada organisme yang telah mati. Jamur parasit menyerap makanan dari organisme yang ditumpanginya.
Artikel ini saya peroleh dari Situs National Geographic.
The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.
Para ilmuwan telah mengidentifikasi empat spesies baru jamur pengontrol otak yang mengubah semut menjadi zombie, dan melakukan perintah parasit itu sebelum akhirnya mati. Berdasarkan hasil identifikasi dari sampel yang diambil di dua lokasi di hutan hujan tropis Brasil, setiap spesies jamur itu memiliki spesialisasi dalam mengendalikan berbagai jenis semut kayu yang berbeda.
Jamur semut zombie asli, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, pertama kali diidentifikasi pada 1865, dan diperkirakan terdapat di seluruh dunia. “Ternyata ada beberapa spesies lain,” kata David Hughes, ahli entomologi di Pennsylvania State University, yang melakukan riset tersebut. “Saya menduga jumlahnya bisa mencapai ratusan.”
Begitu menginfeksi seekor semut, jamur itu menggunakan sejenis zat kimia yang belum diketahui untuk mengontrol perilaku semut tersebut. Jamur mengarahkan semut untuk meninggalkan koloninya, sesuatu yang tidak mungkin dilakukan semut normal. Semut itu akan menggigit bagian bawah daun, yang kelak akan menjadi tempat peristirahatan terakhirnya.
Ketika infeksi itu membunuh semut, serangga tersebut akan tetap berada di daun tersebut. Dari kepala semut mati itu, jamur memproduksi semacam struktur panjang yang akan menembakkan spora dengan harapan dapat menginfeksi semut lain.
Dua dari empat spesies yang baru ditemukan ini juga mengeluarkan tangkai panjang yang lebih kecil dari berbagai bagian tubuh semut korbannya, termasuk dari kaki dan sendi lutut. Spora keempat spesies jamur itu juga mempunyai fitur dan proses pembenihan yang berbeda.
Hughes khawatir salah satu spesies baru itu, O. camponoti-novogranadensis, ada kemungkinan tidak lama lagi akan punah. Dalam kunjungannya ke Brasil, Hughes menemukan bahwa situs tempat spesies itu ditemukan kian panas dan kering. Semut bisa tetap hidup melewati perubahan iklim itu, “Tapi jamurnya tidak,” katanya.
English Version:
A parasitic fungus is turning ants in Thailand into "zombies," and now scientists have a better idea how and when the infection does its gruesome work.
The fungus, a species of Ophiocordyceps, targets carpenter ants living high in Thailand's rain forest canopy. The parasite hijacks the ants' nervous systems, causing the insects to perform abnormal—and oddly specific—behaviors that help the fungus reproduce.
(Related pictures: "'Zombie' Ants Controlled, Decapitated by Flies.")
In a new study, researchers used microscopes to peer inside affected ants and see how the infection progresses. The team found that the growing fungus slowly fills the ant's body and head, causing muscles to waste away and muscle fibers to spread apart.
It takes about three to nine days from initial infection for the ants to become completely zombified, the team found. At first, the infected ants go about their normal business, residing in their nests, interacting with other ants, and even feeding.
"I think of them then as chimeras: part ant and part fungus," said study leader David Hughes, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University.
"As time goes on, the fungal part increases until that ant's behavior is no longer its own."
The new work also found that the fungus tends to kill its ant hosts at high noon, although the exact reason for this timing remains a mystery.
Zombie Ants Die Locked to Leaves
Scientists have been studying Camponotus leonardi ants in Thailand for several years to assess the insect-fungus interaction. In a 2009 paper, for instance, Hughes and colleagues reported on the surprising specificity of the fungus's "directions" to its zombie hosts.
(Related: "'Zombie Virus' Possible via Rabies-Flu Hybrid?")
While normal ants rarely deviate from a trail along a tree, zombie ants wander aimlessly, and they suffer convulsions that cause the animals to fall out of the forest canopy.
Once on the ground, the ants remain in the leafy understory, which rests about 9 or 10 inches (25 centimeters) above the soil and so is cooler and moister than the forest canopy—perfect conditions for the fungus to reproduce.
After a few days, the fungus directs the insect to clamp down on a leaf. The multiplying fungal cells in the ant's head then cause fibers to detach within the muscles that open and close the ant's mandibles.
This results in "lockjaw," which makes an infected ant unable to release the leaf, even after death, creating a stable place outside the ant for the fungus to grow. At this stage the fungus uses a poison to kill its host.
A few days later, the fungus grows through the top of the dead ant's head as a fruiting body, or stroma. Resembling a buck's antlers, the stroma releases spores to be picked up by another wandering ant.
The entire process, from infection to spore release, takes about two to three weeks, Hughes said. (See step-by-step pictures of the process: "'Zombie' Ants Found With New Mind-Control Fungi.")
But the moment the fungus directs an ant to bite a leaf is at least partly dependent on environmental conditions, Hughes added. If the understory is too dry, the fungus "hangs back and waits."
Most of the fungus-sprouting ants in the 2009 study were found in places with 95 percent humidity and temperatures between 68 and 86 degrees F (20 and 30 degrees C).
Ant Fungus Kills at High Noon
Adding a new twist to the tale, the latest research shows that the fungal coup de grace usually occurs at solar noon, when the sun is at its strongest. The fungus might be using sunlight to synchronize the final part of the infection, but this is still speculation, Hughes said.
The new study also suggests that the fungus doesn't target the ants' brains directly. Rather it secretes compounds that affect the insects' brains and nervous systems.
The compounds "likely have an effect on motor neurons"—responsible for controlling movements—"but that is a hunch at present, based on the type of atrophy we saw," Hughes said in an email.
Ultimately, the researcher hopes his work will lead to practical applications, such as biological insecticides that can target pests. Many species of carpenter ant, for instance, can cause structural damage to buildings as the bugs carve their nests in damp wood.
"It will be a major focus in my group," Hughes said. "How can we use this [discovery] to control ants, which are, after all, devastating pests in many places?"
Zombie Fungus Rears Its Ugly Head
A stalk of the newfound fungus species Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani, grows out of a "zombie" ant's head in a Brazilian rain forest.
Originally thought to be a single species, called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the fungus is actually four distinct species—all of which can "mind control" ants—scientists announced Wednesday.
The fungus species can infect an ant, take over its brain, and then kill the insect once it moves to a location ideal for the fungi to grow and spread their spores.
(Related pictures: ""Zombie" Ants Controlled, Decapitated by Flies.")
All four known fungi species live in Brazil's Atlantic rain forest, which is rapidly changing due to climate change and deforestation, said study leader David Hughes, an entomologist at Penn State University.
Hughes and colleagues made the discovery after noticing a wide diversity of fungal growths emerging from ant victims, according to the March 2 study in the journal PLoS ONE.
"It is tempting to speculate that each species of fungus has its own ant species that it is best adapted to attack," Hughes said.
"This potentially means thousands of zombie fungi in tropical forests across the globe await discovery," he said. "We need to ramp up sampling—especially given the perilous state of the environment."
—Matt Kaplan
Published March 3, 2011
Opini Penulis
Entah kenapa, hal ini menurut saya merupakan kejadian yang menakjubkan dan luar biasa. Saya rasa perlu ada pengklasifikasian baru atas yang ada sekarang, yaitu saprofit dan parasit. Karena jamur ini mampu menggerakkan makhluk yang nyata-nyata mampu bergerak dan berjalan untuk dikendalikan ketempat yang jamur sukai untuk berkembangbiak dengan melepaskan spora dan kemampuan menginfeksi semut lainnya dari semut yang telah terinfeksi. Boleh jadi hasil penemuan ini akan dipergunakan oleh pihak militer atau para konspirator ulung untuk mencapai tujuan agendanya dengan melakukan hal semacam ini.
Sebgaimana kita sendiri tidak pernah berfikir sebelumnya, bahwa helm yang sering dipergunakan serdadu tentara yang anti pelor itu terbuat dari sarang laba-laba bukan? ^__^
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