Genetic Architecture and Evolution of Reproductive Caste Determination in Harvester Ants

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。发展过程令人惊讶地是可塑性的，是基因和环境之间持续相互作用的结果。这种灵活性使生物体能够形成适合环境条件的特征，并缓冲应激源和毒素的发育。蚂蚁表现出极端形式的可塑性，这使它们成为研究发育过程中基因与环境相互作用的优秀模型系统，但人们对涉及的基因或它们如何发挥作用知之甚少。在这个项目中，PI将研究一种蚂蚁物种的可塑性机制和进化，这种蚂蚁物种已经失去了对环境线索的反应能力。受控育种实验将允许PI绘制负责发育可塑性的基因组区域。PI将通过比较具有和不具有灵活发展的物种来测试为什么对环境的响应在不同物种之间应该不同的假设。这项工作将有助于对发育过程的统一理解，最终导致更广泛地识别控制发育可塑性的基因。蚂蚁在从衰老研究到入侵物种管理的许多不同学科中都是一个有价值的模型系统。为了促进研究人员之间的交流，PI将在一个公共基因组数据库上进行合作，整个研究社区都可以在该数据库中访问数据。PI将为高中生和教师开发一个暑期项目，旨在让学生接触到遗传学的研究生涯，目标是服务不足的美洲原住民和城市学区。这项研究还将涉及多名本科生和研究生，以及一名博士后研究员，他们将在开发独立研究实验室方面接受指导。

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.