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在经济上很重要，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代内适应了豆粉，甲虫种群之间的杂交增加了适应性。虽然杂交后代适应能力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共生细菌的重组引起的。这个命题将通过比较适应大豆和小麦的甲虫的共生细菌来验证。细菌将通过高通量DNA技术进行鉴定。抗生素将用于去除共生细菌，以确定细菌是否对性能差异负责。该项目将产生与农业、自然保护和教育相关的数据。在不能进行熏蒸处理的情况下，对正在发展中的有机农业产业的决策者在决定进口食品的储存时，这些结果将是非常宝贵的。同样，研究结果将有助于保护组织防止外来物种入侵或促进濒危物种重新引入已改变的环境。PI和Co-PI通过让本科生参与数据收集和分析来指导他们，这笔资金将用于支持田纳西大学VolsTeach项目中甲虫模块的开发。

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.