Thursday, July 2, 2009

Ant symbiosis and Biofuels

[Photo: B W Hoffman]

UW-Madison Communications recently covered a project of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center to sequence the genome of ants that break down and digest cellulose, along with their associated fungi and bacteria ("Sequencing effort to chart ants and their ecosystem").

Recent publications by this project's researchers include:

Adams, A.S., Currie, C.R., Cardozea, Y.J., Klepzig, K.D., & Raffa, K. 2009. Effects of symbiotic bacteria and tree chemistry on the growth and reproduction of bark beetle fungal symbionts. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39(6): 1133–1147.

Caldera, E.J., Poulsen, M., Suen, G., & Currie, C.R. 2009. Insect symbioses: a case study of past, present, and future fungus-growing ant research. Environmental Entomology 38: 78-92.

Ivens, A.B.F.; Nash, D.R.; Poulsen, M.; Boomsma, J.J. 2009. Caste-specific symbiont policing by workers of Acromyrmex fungus-growing ants. Behavioral Ecology 20:2, 378-384.

Little, A.E.F & Currie, C.R. 2008. Black yeast symbionts compromise the efficiency of antibiotic defenses in fungus-growing ants. Ecology 89: 1216-1222.

Oh, D.C, Scott, J.J., Currie, C.R., & Clardy, J. 2009. Mycangimycin: a polyene peroxide from a symbiotic Streptomyces sp. Organic Letters 11: 633-636.

Oh, D.C., Poulsen, M., Currie, C.R., & Clardy, J. 2009. Dentigerumycin: the bacterially produced molecular mediator of a fungus-growing ant symbiosis. Nature Chemical Biology 5: 391-393.

Oh, D.C., Scott, J.J., Poulsen, M.Z., Currie, C.R., & Clardy, J. 2008. Discovery of new secondary metabolites mediating insect-microorganism symbioses. Planta Medica 74(9): 906.

Poulsen, M., Fernandez-Marin, H., Wcislo, W.T., Currie, C.R., & Boomsma, J.J. (in press). Ephemeral windows of opportunity maintain horizontal transmission of fungal symbionts in leaf-cutting ants. Evolution.

Poulsen, M. & Currie, C.R. 2009. On ants, plants and fungi. New Phytologist 182(4): 785-788.

Scott, J.J., Oh, D.C., Yuceer, M.C., Klepzig, K.D., Clardy, J., et al. 2008. Bacterial protection of beetle-fungus mutualism. Science 322: 63.

Library Express system maintenance 7/3-7/4



**
Library Express will be unavailable from 10 pm on Friday night (July 3) until 3 am Saturday morning (July 4) for system maintenance. **

What is Library Express?

Library Express is the UW-Madison's "document delivery" and "interlibrary loan" (ILL) service.

UW-Madison students, staff and faculty may also use Library Express to request books sent by mail, if they're living outside of Dane County. For more information, see Distance Services.

What can be requested?

  • Articles scanned from print journals located on campus
  • Articles not available in print on campus, or through online subscription
  • Books not available in print on campus, or through online subscription

What can NOT be requested?

  • More than 50 requests per week
  • Books available on campus - instead, use "Place Requests" in MadCat to have these sent to your preferred pick-up library
  • Books available at other UW System campuses (ex: UW-Milwaukee) - instead, use "UW System Search" in MadCat and "Place Requests" to have these sent to your preferred pick-up library
  • Articles longer than 50 pages from journals that are available in print on campus. However, if the article is not available on-campus, then there is no page limit.
  • Articles available in full-text PDF online through library subscriptions - check find it button
  • These items are very difficult to borrow from off-campus:
    • Audiovisual materials including videos and CDs
    • Computer software and manuals
    • Genealogical resources
    • Materials for class reserve or group use - talk to your Reserves contact about purchasing copies instead
    • Rare books
    • Recently published books - if rejected, use the "Purchase Recommendation form"
    • Reference materials
    • Technical reports and standards
    • Textbooks
    • Whole volumes or issues of periodicals