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Ford

Another interesting paper from the Currie lab. But there's still a big mystery about the fungicide-producing actinomycetes. Mutants that knock out fungicide production must occur all the time. Producing fungicide has a metabolic cost. So why don't nonproducing mutants outcompete fungicide producers on each individual ant? Sure, in the long run, spread of this mutant could hurt all the actinomycetes, as the ant colony collapses, but natural selection has no foresight. See link for a possible answer.

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