Isolation and characterisation of novel antimycotics

亚马逊切叶蚁在5000万至6000万年前开始种植真菌，作为它们的后代和蚁后的食物来源。他们在收集的树叶上种植真菌，并与真菌一起培养细菌，这种细菌产生化学物质来抑制任何其他真菌或细菌的生长。这种巧妙的共生关系已经经过了数千万年的进化，细菌的回报是通过蚂蚁身体上特殊腺体的分泌物来喂养。细菌产生的化学物质尚未被鉴定，因此在这个项目中，我们将分离和鉴定这些化合物，并调查这些化合物是否可以用作治疗人类和动物感染的药物。

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.