Researchers from McGill University have revealed the steps by which two very distinct organisms – bacteria and carpenter ants – have come to depend on one another for survival to become a single complex life form. The study, published today in Nature, shows that the two species have collaborated to radically alter the development of the ant embryo to allow this integration to happen. Understanding how such grand unifications originate and evolve is a major puzzle for biologists.
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Published on: 2 Sep 2020
Research from McGill University topped Québec Science’s annual list of the 10 most important scientific breakthroughs. This year, Günther Grill, Bernhard Lehner, Tomislav Friščić, Heidi M. McBride, Samantha Gruenheid, and Ehab Abouheif were recognized for their trailblazing work, by a jury of researchers and journalists reviewing the most influential discoveries made in Quebec.
Here is a closer look at the selected discoveries:
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Published on: 9 Jan 2020
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Published on: 10 Oct 2018
Until now scientists have believed that the variations in traits such as our height, skin colour, tendency to gain weight or not, intelligence, tendency to develop certain diseases, etc., all of them traits that exist along a continuum, were a result of both genetic and environmental factors. But they didn’t know how exactly these things worked together. By studying ants, McGill researchers have identified a key mechanism by which environmental (or epigenetic) factors influence the expression of all of these traits, (along with many more).
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Published on: 11 Mar 2015
