SGER: Microarray Analysis of Caste Ontogeny in a Social Insect

环境与发展的相互作用塑造了个体和动物社会。然而，起点在于基因。分子生物学的新工具对每个因素所起的作用提供了新的见解：基因、环境和发育；以及它们在塑造自然世界时是如何相互联系的。群居昆虫，包括害虫蚂蚁和白蚁，对理解构成了特殊的挑战。因此，利用新的分子生物学技术来鉴定受环境影响的特定基因在调节群居昆虫群体的发展过程中是及时而重要的。一个简单的昆虫社会比大群的火蚁或白蚁更适合实验分子生物学。因此，本研究的目的是利用一种新的分子工具——基因微阵列，来鉴定一种纸蜂物种中受环境影响的特定基因，因为它们调节了蜂群中工蜂和繁殖体的发育。这项研究的一个重要的更广泛的影响是，其结果应该广泛适用于蚂蚁、蜜蜂和白蚁，包括经济上重要的物种，如害虫蚂蚁和濒危的传粉昆虫，如大黄蜂。作为一个额外的更广泛的影响，本科生将在生物学研究的几个层面（行为，生态学，分子生物学）接受培训和经验，这些学生将继续在保护，生态学或生物医学方面接受高级培训和职业生涯。了解群居昆虫群体发育的分子基础可以为我们更深入地了解基因、环境和发育之间的相互作用提供新的途径，也可以为我们未来研究控制和保护一些世界上最重要的生态昆虫提供新的研究工具。

James Howell HuntIOS-0819807SGER: Microarray analysis of caste ontogeny in a social insectThe interplay of environment and development shapes individuals and animal societies. The starting point, however, is in the genes. New tools of molecular biology are giving new insights into roles played by each factor: genes, environment, and development; and how they relate to one another in shaping the natural world. Social insects, including pest ants and termites, pose special challenges to understanding. Thus, it is both timely and important to take advantage of new molecular biology technologies to identify specific genes that are affected by the environment as they regulate the development of a social insect colony. A simple insect society is more suitable for experimental molecular biology than are large colonies of fire ants or termites. The objective of the research, therefore, is to employ a new molecular tool, a microarray of genes, to identify specific genes in a paper wasp species that are affected by the environment as they regulate the development of workers and reproductives in the wasp colony. An important broader impact of the research is that the results should be widely applicable to ants, bees, and termites, including economically important species such as pest ants and endangered pollinators such as bumble bees. As an additional broader impact, undergraduate students will be given training and experience in several levels of biological research (behavior, ecology, molecular biology), and these students will go on to advanced training and careers in conservation, ecology, or biomedicine. To learn the molecular basis of development in a colony of social insects can be the gateway to new and deeper understanding of the interplay of genes, environment, and development, and it can also give us new research tools for future investigations for both control and protection of some of the world's most ecologically important insects.