Fungus That Tastes Just Right (IMAGE)
Caption
Leaf-cutter ants carry leaves to fungal gardens. The gardens degrade leaves and produce nutrients that feed young ants and garden workers. PNNL researchers are exploring how the fungal gardens produce useful compounds from plant biomass. Plant material is hard to break down into its structural components, but the fungal garden efficiently breaks down these plant polymers and makes nutrients from the released monomers. Glucose molecules (red hexagons at the bottom) liberated from cellulose are biofuel precursor molecules.
Credit
Illustration by Nathan Johnson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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