This research reveals how a fungus farmed by leafcutter ants produces specialized food structures for the ants by recycling its own cellular contents through a process called autophagy. This finding helps explain how this ancient farming partnership between ants and fungi has remained stable for millions of years. Impacts on everyday life: – Provides insights into how organisms can form stable, mutually beneficial partnerships – Advances our understanding of cellular recycling processes that are important across biology – Offers potential applications for improving agricultural crop development – Demonstrates how microscopic processes can maintain large-scale ecological relationships – Could inform development of sustainable farming practices based on natural systems