Collaborative Research: Inferring bacterial roles in the evolution of trophic level across the ants

合作研究：推断细菌在蚂蚁营养级进化中的作用

• 批准号: 1050243
• 负责人: Corrie Moreau
• 金额: $ 29.98万
• 依托单位: Field Museum of Natural History
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-03-01 至 2015-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1050243&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Inferring; bacterial; roles

The ants are a diverse and abundant group of insects, numbering in excess of 12,000 species and comprising a greater biomass than most land-dwelling animals. When combined with their roles as predators, scavengers, and defenders of plants and insects, it is clear that these organisms are among the more influential animals found within terrestrial ecosystems. Although they are often thought of as carnivores, the ants have evolved to utilize a wide range of diets. Notably, several groups have come to feed at the base of the food chain, relying on low-quality, herbivorous diets that provide insufficient nutritional sustenance. While it is not known just how these insects can persist on such diets, symbiotic bacteria are hypothesized to play a central role. This research project will test this hypothesis, and investigate the roles of nutritional gut bacteria in the evolution of ant diets. Using molecular phylogenetics, the evolutionary relationships among ants from several geographic locations will be determined. Stable isotopes will be used to characterize the feeding positions of these species on the food chain, and DNA sequencing will be used to determine composition of their bacterial gut communities. These results will be combined to test whether ants feeding on low-quality diets have co-evolved with specialized, beneficial gut bacteria, and whether habitat disturbance or introductions of invasive ants have changed these dynamics. This synthetic approach will not only reveal features shaping bacterial communities from animal hosts, it will also determine whether symbiotic bacteria have played important roles in the evolution of ant diets, enabling the origins of novel lifestyles and proliferation within otherwise inhospitable habitats. By examining native and invasive species from pristine and disturbed habitats, this work will reveal how environmental changes can alter interactions between animals and their gut microbes. Such work is broadly important to understanding the adaptability of animal species, for example, in dealing with climate change. This project will support the training of a postdoctoral scholar, graduate and undergraduates in interdisciplinary research, and provide opportunities for public involvement in the research through the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History.

蚂蚁是一群多种多样的昆虫，比大多数土地居住动物的生物量超过12,000种，并且包含更大的生物量。 当它们与植物和昆虫的捕食者，清道夫和捍卫者相结合时，很明显，这些生物是在陆地生态系统中发现的更具影响力的动物之一。 尽管他们经常被认为是食肉动物，但蚂蚁已经发展为利用多种饮食。 值得注意的是，有几个小组在食物链底部喂食，依靠低品质的草食性饮食，这些饮食提供了不足的营养寄生。 虽然这些昆虫如何在这种饮食上持续存在，但共生细菌被认为起着核心作用。 该研究项目将检验该假设，并研究营养肠道细菌在蚂蚁饮食进化中的作用。使用分子系统发育学，将确定几个地理位置的蚂蚁之间的进化关系。 稳定的同位素将用于表征这些物种在食物链上的喂养位置，DNA测序将用于确定其细菌肠道群落的组成。 这些结果将结合起来，以测试以低质量饮食为食的蚂蚁是否与专门的，有益的肠道细菌共同发展，以及栖息地干扰还是侵入性蚂蚁的引入改变了这些动态。 这种合成方法不仅会揭示塑造动物宿主细菌群落的特征，而且还将确定共生细菌是否在蚂蚁饮食的演变中起着重要作用，从而使新的生活方式和增殖的起源在原本令人难以置信的习惯中起源。通过检查原始和干扰栖息地的天然和入侵物种，这项工作将揭示环境变化如何改变动物及其肠道微生物之间的相互作用。 这种工作对于理解动物物种的适应性至关重要，例如在应对气候变化时。 该项目将支持跨学科研究的博士后学者，研究生和本科生的培训，并通过芝加哥自然历史博物馆为公众参与研究提供了机会。