MSB: Experimental Coevolutionary Genetics of the Attine Ant-Microbe Symbiosis

MSB：蚂蚁-微生物共生的实验共同进化遗传学

• 批准号: 0919519
• 负责人: Ulrich Mueller
• 金额: $ 49.85万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0919519&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MSB; Experimental; Coevolutionary; Genetics; Attine

Certain ants cultivate fungi as their major food source. The ants collect and transport vegetable substrate to a "garden," usually a sheltered chamber excavated in the ground, then plant fungus on this new substrate. Gardens of fungus-growing ants are foci of interactions within a community of ants, the cultivated fungus, and a great diversity of additional microbes. Specifically, pathogens attacking the ants or the fungal gardens can cause the death of the nest community, but a variety of auxiliary microbes contribute disease-suppressing properties that control such pathogens. Disease resistance to pathogens is shaped by the genetic identity of both the ant and the fungus and the interaction of these two dominant community members with the auxiliary microbes. This research will elucidate how these nest community members interact and co-evolve in response to pathogen presence. To understand disease dynamics, the research will (a) characterize the inheritance of assemblages of auxiliary microbes from maternal to offspring ant nest; (b) determine the importance of co-inheritance of ant-fungus-microbe combinations to disease resistance of the community; and (c) evaluate the relative contribution to disease-resistance by ant, fungus, and auxiliary microbes. The research integrates a variety of experimental approaches within an ecological-genetics and quantitative-genetics framework, contributing towards a unification of ecology and evolutionary biology.Inheritance of auxiliary microbes between generations occurs in diverse hosts, including humans, but the importance of communities of auxiliary microbes in their contribution to the health of a host is incompletely understood. This research develops novel experimental approaches to elucidate the role of auxiliary microbe communities in disease suppression. Because microbial communities also confer disease resistance for humans (e.g., the microbiome of human skin or gut) and for crops (e.g., the microbiome of roots), this research on fungus-growing ants will contribute to the understanding of general microbial principles with applications to human and agricultural disease management. Fungus-growing ants and their microbes will also be used to promote education of students and the public on the importance of ecological, evolutionary, and all biological processes. A postdoctoral researcher and multiple undergraduates will be trained and mentored in this research project.

某些蚂蚁种植真菌作为其主要食物来源。 蚂蚁将蔬菜基板收集并运输到“花园”，通常是在地面上挖掘出的庇护室，然后在这种新基材上种植真菌。 真菌种植蚂蚁的花园是蚂蚁社区，耕种真菌和大量其他微生物的相互作用的焦点。具体而言，攻击蚂蚁或真菌花园的病原体会导致巢穴群落死亡，但是各种辅助微生物贡献了控制这种病原体的疾病抑制特性。 对病原体的抗病性是由蚂蚁和真菌的遗传认同以及这两个主要社区成员与辅助微生物的相互作用所塑造的。 这项研究将阐明这些嵌套社区成员如何响应病原体存在的相互作用和共同发展。 为了了解疾病动力学，该研究将（a）表征从母体到后代蚂蚁巢的辅助微生物的遗传； （b）确定蚂蚁 - 脉冲 - 微生物组合对社区抗病性的共同发电的重要性； （c）评估蚂蚁，真菌和辅助微生物对抗病的相对贡献。 该研究将各种实验方法整合到生态基因和定量遗传学框架中，促进了生态学和进化生物学的统一。世代之间的辅助微生物在包括人类在内的多元化宿主中发生在包括人类在内的多元化宿主中，但对辅助微生物的贡献对他们的贡献对宿主的贡献不合时宜。 这项研究开发了新型的实验方法，以阐明辅助微生物群落在抑制疾病中的作用。 由于微生物群落还赋予人类（例如人类皮肤或肠道的微生物组）和农作物（例如根部的微生物组）抗病性抗病性，因此这项关于真菌种植蚂蚁的研究将有助于理解对人类和农业疾病管理的应用微生物原理。 真菌种植的蚂蚁及其微生物也将用于促进学生和公众对生态，进化和所有生物过程的重要性的教育。博士后研究人员和多名本科生将在该研究项目中接受培训和指导。