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.

蚂蚁是一个种类丰富、数量众多的昆虫类群，数量超过 12,000 种，其生物量比大多数陆地动物还要多。 结合它们作为植物和昆虫的捕食者、食腐者和保护者的角色，很明显，这些生物是陆地生态系统中最具影响力的动物之一。 尽管蚂蚁通常被认为是食肉动物，但蚂蚁已经进化到可以利用多种饮食。 值得注意的是，一些群体已经开始以食物链底部为食，依赖低质量的草食性饮食，无法提供足够的营养。 虽然尚不清楚这些昆虫如何能够坚持这种饮食，但假设共生细菌发挥着核心作用。 该研究项目将检验这一假设，并研究营养肠道细菌在蚂蚁饮食进化中的作用。利用分子系统发育学，将确定来自多个地理位置的蚂蚁之间的进化关系。 稳定同位素将用于表征这些物种在食物链上的进食位置，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测试以低质量饮食为食的蚂蚁是否与专门的有益肠道细菌共同进化，以及栖息地的干扰或入侵蚂蚁的引入是否改变了这些动态。 这种合成方法不仅将揭示塑造动物宿主细菌群落的特征，还将确定共生细菌是否在蚂蚁饮食的进化中发挥了重要作用，从而促成了新生活方式的起源以及在原本不适宜居住的栖息地中的增殖。通过研究来自原始和受干扰栖息地的本地和入侵物种，这项工作将揭示环境变化如何改变动物与其肠道微生物之间的相互作用。 此类工作对于了解动物物种的适应性（例如应对气候变化）非常重要。 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，并通过芝加哥菲尔德自然历史博物馆为公众参与研究提供机会。