DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Understanding a landmark social insect radiation: comparative analysis, phylogenomics, and morphology of dorylomorph ants

行军蚁是一些最引人注目的生物，生活在世界暖温带和热带地区。它们是热带地区最重要的无脊椎动物捕食者，使它们成为雨林生态系统的关键物种。这项研究将重建行军蚂蚁及其近亲的进化史。这些蚂蚁的族谱、它们的地理起源以及解释它们生态优势的特征进化的时间表将被调查。利用分子生物学和生物信息学的最新进展，将从蚂蚁DNA构建一棵进化树。然后，这棵树将作为测试关于军蚁特征进化的假设的框架。这项研究也将为鉴定行军蚁及其近缘物种提供一个新的框架。这项研究不仅将深入了解一类具有重要生态意义的昆虫的历史，还将有助于了解分子生物学、统计学和计算机科学的最新进展如何提高我们对进化过程的认识。新的资源允许更容易和更准确地识别这些蚂蚁，这将有助于其他生物学家和保护专家做出决策，并计划对该群体进行进一步研究。将教授一门关于计算生物学技术的课程，促进对不断增长的生物数据进行有效分析的技能。

Army ants, some of the most striking organisms, are found in warm temperate and tropical regions of the world. They are the most important invertebrate predators of the tropics, making them key species in rainforest ecosystems. This research will reconstruct the evolutionary history of army ants and their close relatives. The family tree of these ants, their geographic origins and the timeline of the evolution of traits that account for their ecological dominance will be investigated. An evolutionary tree will be constructed from the ants DNA using latest advances in molecular biology and bioinformatics. This tree will then serve as a framework for testing hypotheses on the evolution of army ant characteristics. This study will also provide a new framework for identification of army ants and closely related species.This project will not only bring insights into the history of an ecologically important group of insects but also help to understand how the latest advances in molecular biology, statistics and computer science can improve our knowledge of evolutionary processes. New resources allowing easier and more accurate identification of these ants will aid other biologists and conservation specialists in decision making and planning further research on the group. A class on techniques in computational biology will be taught, promoting skills in efficient analysis of the ever-increasing volume of biological data.