Which chemical makes ants walk like zombies?
- William C. Beckerson, Ph.D.
- Apr 17
- 1 min read
William C. Beckerson, Courtney Krider, Umar A. Mohammad, and Charissa de Bekker
Science Journal for Kids, 2025
Abstract: Have you ever seen an ant acting strange? Sometimes, ants are infected with a fungus called Ophiocordyceps that can change their behavior. The fungus causes them to walk like a zombie, climb up nearby plants, and bite to hang on tightly. It does this so that the wind will help spread its infectious spores. But how does this happen? Our previous research discovered that Ophiocordyceps fungi can make a chemical similar to one called aflatrem. Since these types of chemicals are known to cause trouble with walking in other animals, we wondered if it might be causing the zombie walk in ants, too. To test our hypothesis, we injected ants with aflatrem and found that it makes them move more slowly. It also causes them to stagger like they are dizzy! We also discovered that aflatrem can change how much some genes are turned up or down in the ants. By making it harder for ants to walk, we think the fungus uses aflatrem-like chemicals to keep the ants from leaving once they are in the perfect spot for the biting behavior. This helps the fungus to spread its spores better.
Keywords: Aflatrem, Ophiocordyceps, RNA, Animal Behavior, Sequencing
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