Isolation and characterisation of novel antimycotics

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Amazonian leaf-cutter ants began farming fungus as a food source for their offspring and queen between 50-60 million years ago. They grow the fungus on the leaves they have collected and they also grow a bacterium wit the fungus which produces chemicals to inhibit the growth of any other fungi or bacteria. This clever symbiotic relationship has evolved over tens of millions of years and the bacteria are repaid by being fed by secretions from specialised glands on the ant bodies. The chemicals produced by the bacteria have not been identified and so during this project we will isolate and identify the compounds and investigate whether these compounds could be used as drugs for treatiing human and animal infections.