SGER: Microarray Analysis of Caste Ontogeny in a Social Insect

SGER：社会性昆虫种姓个体发育的微阵列分析

• 批准号: 0819807
• 负责人: James Hunt
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-05-01 至 2009-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0819807&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SGER; Microarray; Analysis; Caste; Ontogeny

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.

James豪厄尔HuntIOS-0819807 SGER：社会昆虫种姓个体发生的微阵列分析环境和发展的相互作用塑造了个体和动物社会。然而，出发点是在基因中。分子生物学的新工具正在为每个因素所扮演的角色提供新的见解：基因，环境和发育;以及它们在塑造自然世界中如何相互关联。社会性昆虫，包括害虫蚂蚁和白蚁，对理解提出了特殊的挑战。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是及时和重要的，因为它们调节社会性昆虫群体的发育。一个简单的昆虫群落比大群的火蚁或白蚁更适合于实验分子生物学。因此，这项研究的目的是采用一种新的分子工具，一种基因微阵列，来识别受环境影响的纸黄蜂物种中的特定基因，因为它们调节黄蜂群体中工人和繁殖者的发育。该研究的一个重要的更广泛影响是，其结果应广泛适用于蚂蚁、蜜蜂和白蚁，包括害虫蚂蚁等经济重要物种和熊蜂等濒危传粉媒介。作为一个额外的更广泛的影响，本科生将获得生物学研究（行为，生态学，分子生物学）的几个层次的培训和经验，这些学生将继续在保护，生态学或生物医学的高级培训和职业生涯。了解群居昆虫群体发育的分子基础，可以使我们更深入地了解基因、环境和发育的相互作用，也可以为我们提供新的研究工具，用于控制和保护一些世界上最重要的生态昆虫。