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具有重要意义，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代内适应大豆面粉，并且甲虫种群之间的杂交增加了适应能力。虽然杂交后代的适应性增强可能是由亲本基因组的重组(标准解释)造成的，但性能的提高也可能是来自亲本种群的共生细菌的重组所致。这一命题将通过比较适应大豆和小麦的甲虫的共生细菌来检验。细菌将通过高通量DNA技术进行鉴定。抗生素将被用来清除共生菌，以确定细菌是否对性能的差异负责。该项目将产生与农业、保护和教育相关的数据。在不能选择熏蒸的情况下，在做出关于进口食品储存的决定时，结果将对不断增长的有机农业行业的政策制定者来说是非常宝贵的。同样，结果将有助于保护组织防止外来物种的入侵或促进濒危物种重新引入改变的环境。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.