Genetic Architecture and Evolution of Reproductive Caste Determination in Harvester Ants

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The process of development is surprisingly plastic, resulting from an ongoing interaction between genes and environment. This flexibility allows organisms to develop characteristics appropriate to environmental conditions and buffers development from stressors and toxins. Ants display extreme forms of plasticity that make them an excellent model system for the study of gene-environment interactions during development, yet little is known about the genes involved or how they function. In this project, the PI will investigate mechanisms and evolution of plasticity in an ant species that has secondarily lost the ability to respond to environmental cues. Controlled breeding experiments will allow the PI to map regions of the genome responsible for developmental plasticity. The PI will test hypotheses for why responsiveness to the environment should vary across species by comparing species with and without flexible development. This work will contribute to a unified understanding of the developmental process, ultimately leading to identification of genes controlling developmental plasticity more generally.Ants are a valuable model system in a number of different disciplines, from aging research to invasive species management. To facilitate communication among researchers, the PI will collaborate on a public genomics database, where data can be accessed by the entire research community. The PI will develop a summer program for high school students and teachers designed to expose students to a research career in genetics, targeted toward underserved Native American and urban school districts. The research will also involve multiple undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a post-doctoral researcher who will receive mentorship in developing an independent research laboratory.