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“Our ultimate goal is to have a fundamental understanding of how a complex biological system works,” Dr. Kronauer said. “I use ants as a model to do this.”
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Dr. Kronauer’s model ants offer scientists the chance to explore, under controlled conditions, the origin and evolution of animal societies.
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The project represents basic research at its most seductively cerebral, yet it may well reveal insights into human disease, like why cancer cells ignore all stop signals from their surroundings, or why the brain turns in on itself during depression.
“By studying the neuromodulators that make ants so sensitive to their social environment,” Dr. Kronauer said, “we could learn something fundamental about autism and depression along the way.”
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The ants’ unusual mix of genetic uniformity and wildly protean conduct offers a powerful tool for cracking the old nature-versus-nurture conundrum, and the Kronauer researchers have been mapping out the interplay between genes and environmental cues in shaping essential behaviors like reproduction and sociality.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Gene-Modified Ants Shed Light on How Societies Are Organized
