DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Roles of host hybridization and symbiont admixture in adaptation and diversification

红粉甲虫是一种分布广泛的害虫。了解它如何适应新产品的侵扰具有重要的经济意义，并解决了有关适应和多样化的一般问题。 在最初的论文工作中，Co-PI发现面粉甲虫在11代内适应大豆粉，甲虫种群之间的杂交增加了适应性。虽然杂交种适应性的提高可能是由亲本基因组的重组引起的（标准解释），但性能的提高也可能是由亲本种群中共生细菌的重组引起的。这一命题将通过比较大豆适应和小麦适应甲虫的共生细菌进行测试。将通过高通量DNA技术鉴定细菌。抗生素将用于去除共生细菌，以确定细菌是否是造成性能差异的原因。该项目将产生与农业，保护和教育相关的数据。研究结果将是非常宝贵的决策者在不断增长的有机农业产业时，作出决定储存进口食品时，熏蒸是不是一个选项。同样，研究结果将服务于有兴趣防止外来物种入侵或促进濒危物种重新引入改变环境的保护组织。PI和Co-PI通过让他们参与数据收集和分析来指导本科生，这笔资金将支持田纳西大学VolsTeach计划中的甲虫模块的开发。

The red flour beetle is a widespread pest. Understanding how it can adapt to infest new products is economically important and addresses general questions about adaptation and diversification. In initial dissertation work, the Co-PI found that flour beetles adapt to soy flour within eleven generations and hybridization between beetle populations increases adaptation. While increased adaptation in hybrids can be caused by recombination of parental genomes (the standard explanation), increased performance might also be caused by recombination of symbiotic bacteria from parental populations. This proposition will be tested by comparing symbiotic bacteria of soy-adapted and wheat-adapted beetles. Bacteria will be identified by high-throughput DNA technology. Antibiotics will be used to remove symbiotic bacteria to determine whether bacteria are responsible for differences in performance.This project will produce data relevant to agriculture, conservation, and education. Results will be invaluable to policy makers in the growing organic agriculture industry when making decisions about storage of imported food products when fumigation is not an option. Similarly, results will be of service to conservation organizations interested in preventing invasions by exotic species or facilitating reintroduction of endangered species to altered environments. The PI and Co-PI mentor undergraduate students by involving them in data collection and analysis, and this funding will support development of a beetle module in the VolsTeach program at the University of Tennessee.