CAREER: Phylogeny and Evolution of Armored Scale Insects (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) and Their Bacterial Endosymbionts

职业：甲鳞昆虫（半翅目：双翅目）及其细菌内共生体的系统发育和进化

• 批准号: 0447880
• 负责人: Benjamin Normark
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-15 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0447880&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Phylogeny; Evolution; Armored; Scale

The abstract.NormarkDEB 0447880Armored scale insects are unusual organisms in many ways. The males fly, and look like ordinary insects, but the females are wingless, legless blobs. Armored scale insects have strange genetics, in which males start life with chromosomes from both parents, but lose their fathers' chromosomes and pass on only their mothers'. They have strange anatomy and nutrition, with no gut connecting mouth to anus. UMass grad student Matthew Gruwell recently discovered that armored scale insects are also associated with unusual bacteria -- unlike the Proteobacteria found in most sap-feeding insects, armored scale insects have Flavobacteria. The role of bacteria in the nutrition and genetics of their hosts are vibrant areas of current research, and this field may be illuminated by the connections betwen armored scale insects' unusual nutrition, genetics, and bacteria. But the simplified anatomy of armored scale insects, and consequent difficulty of identifying them, classifying them, and understanding their evolutionary relationships, has hindered progress. In this project, the principal investigator and his students will sequence DNA from four different genes of 250 species of armored scale insects, expanding upon an earlier study. They will also sequence DNA from bacteria associated with the scale insects, and investigate where in the scale insects tissues the bacteria occur. The DNA sequences will be used to infer evolutionary trees which will shed light on the evolution of the unusual characters of these insects and the nature of their co-evolution with bacteria, as well as providing a sounder basis for their classification.Armored scale insects are major pests of trees and shrubs in the US and in all but the coldest regions of the world, especially damaging fruit and nut crops and ornamentals. This project will lead to a better classification of these insects, which will help managers predict important biological features such as natural enemies. Ultimately these data will permit armored scale insects to be identified through "DNA barcoding." This will be especially useful in the case of armored scale insects, since currently only one life stage (adult females) is identifiable. The project directly supports education in that almost all of the funds go to support graduate and undergraduate students and their research. To foster direct undergraduate education and participation in the project, the principal investigator is teaching a new undergraduate course entitled "Molecular Biodiversity Lab," that will teach the basic principles of the field of molecular systematics, and the associated lab and computer skills.

抽象的。甲鳞虫在很多方面都是不寻常的生物。雄性会飞，看起来像普通的昆虫，但雌性是没有翅膀，没有腿的斑点。甲鳞虫有奇怪的基因，雄性一开始就有来自父母双方的染色体，但失去了父亲的染色体，只传递了母亲的染色体。它们的解剖结构和营养都很奇怪，没有连接嘴和肛门的肠道。马萨诸塞大学研究生Matthew Gruwell最近发现，盔甲蚧虫也与不寻常的细菌有关——与大多数取食液体的昆虫中发现的变形菌门不同，盔甲蚧虫有黄杆菌门。细菌在宿主营养和遗传中的作用是当前研究的热点，而甲鳞虫不同寻常的营养、遗传和细菌之间的联系可能会照亮这一领域。但是甲鳞虫的简单解剖结构，以及随之而来的识别、分类和理解它们的进化关系的困难，阻碍了研究的进展。在这个项目中，首席研究员和他的学生将对250种甲鳞虫的四种不同基因的DNA进行测序，在早期研究的基础上进行扩展。他们还将对与蚧虫有关的细菌的DNA进行测序，并调查蚧虫组织中细菌发生的位置。DNA序列将被用来推断进化树，这将揭示这些昆虫不同寻常的特征的进化，以及它们与细菌共同进化的本质，并为它们的分类提供一个更健全的基础。装甲蚧虫是美国和世界上除最冷地区以外的所有地区树木和灌木的主要害虫，特别是破坏水果和坚果作物以及观赏植物。该项目将有助于更好地对这些昆虫进行分类，这将有助于管理人员预测重要的生物特征，如天敌。最终，这些数据将允许通过“DNA条形码”来识别盔甲蚧虫。这对甲鳞虫尤其有用，因为目前只有一个生命阶段（成年雌性）是可识别的。该项目直接支持教育，因为几乎所有的资金都用于支持研究生和本科生及其研究。为了促进本科生的直接教育和对项目的参与，首席研究员正在教授一门名为“分子生物多样性实验室”的新本科课程，该课程将教授分子系统学领域的基本原理，以及相关的实验室和计算机技能。