Dimensions: Identifying how the ecological and evolutionary interactions between host and symbiont shape holobiont biodiversity

维度：确定宿主和共生体之间的生态和进化相互作用如何塑造全生物生物多样性

• 批准号: 1442156
• 负责人: John Wertz
• 金额: $ 47.97万
• 依托单位: Calvin University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-01 至 2021-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1442156&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dimensions; Identifying; how; ecological; evolutionary

Although individual animals have long been considered a fundamental unit of evolution, we now know that each is really a co-dependent collection of host animal and microbes. This co-dependency reaches from ancient times through to the present day. Many animals depend on gut bacteria to process food and incorporate essential nutrients into the host's own tissues. To untangle the importance of this partnership for hosts and symbiotic gut bacteria, this project will study a diverse and ecologically important social animal group, the turtle ants. As social organisms, ants and humans share ways for acquiring helpful and harmful bacteria. State-of-the-art molecular and genomic methods will be used to investigate ancient and modern influences on the symbiosis, the function of the bacteria for host health, and the means of passage and maintenance of the bacterial symbionts over millions of years.Explaining global patterns of biodiversity and their drivers have long been central challenges in the fields of ecology and evolution. Increasingly, it is becoming apparent that biodiversity is itself a function of interactions across different levels of biological organization. Among the metazoans, symbioses with microbes are a defining feature, and individuals are integrated collections of host and symbiont cells, together defining the "holobiont". By studying the diverse and tractable turtle ant system, this research will address the relationships between symbiosis and the dimensions of holobiont biodiversity with unprecedented clarity. Specifically, this research will address: 1) the roles of time, biogeography, and habitat in host diversification (host taxonomic dimension); 2) variation in gut communities across host ant phylogeny, geography, habitat, and ecological niches (symbiont taxonomic dimension integrated with host taxonomic and functional dimensions); 3) the extent of codiversification for ~10 core, host-specific symbiont lineages, and the impacts of host phylogeny, geography, and ecology on symbiont transfer (symbiont taxonomic dimension integrated with host taxonomic and functional dimensions); 4) variation in genome evolution and innovation across symbionts with varying degrees of codiversification, and across genes with varying function (taxonomic, genetic, and functional integration of hosts and symbionts); and 5) symbiont function in light of symbiont genome evolution, host-symbiont codiversification, and host phylogeny, geography, and ecology (taxonomic, genetic, and functional integration of hosts and symbionts).

尽管长期以来，个体动物一直被认为是进化的基本单位，但我们现在知道，每一种动物实际上都是宿主动物和微生物共同依赖的集合。这种相互依存关系从古代一直延续到今天。许多动物依靠肠道细菌来处理食物，并将必需的营养物质吸收到宿主自身的组织中。为了弄清这种伙伴关系对宿主和共生肠道细菌的重要性，该项目将研究一种多样性和生态上重要的社会动物群体——龟蚁。作为社会性生物，蚂蚁和人类获取有益细菌和有害细菌的方式是相同的。最先进的分子和基因组方法将用于研究古代和现代对共生的影响，细菌对宿主健康的功能，以及细菌共生体在数百万年里的传递和维持方式。长期以来，解释生物多样性的全球格局及其驱动因素一直是生态学和进化领域的核心挑战。越来越明显的是，生物多样性本身就是不同层次生物组织之间相互作用的一个功能。在后生动物中，与微生物的共生是一个决定性的特征，个体是宿主和共生细胞的综合集合，共同定义了“整体生物”。通过研究龟蚁系统的多样性和可处理性，本研究将以前所未有的清晰度解决共生与生物多样性维度之间的关系。具体而言，本研究将探讨：1)时间、生物地理和生境在寄主多样化（寄主分类维度）中的作用；2)肠道群落在宿主蚂蚁系统发育、地理、栖息地和生态位之间的变化（共生分类维度与宿主分类和功能维度相结合）；3)约10个核心、宿主特异性共生体谱系的共多样化程度，以及宿主系统发育、地理和生态对共生体转移的影响（共生分类维度与宿主分类和功能维度相结合）；4)共多样化程度不同的共生体和功能不同的基因（宿主和共生体的分类、遗传和功能整合）之间的基因组进化和创新差异；5)共生体基因组进化、宿主-共生体共多样化、宿主系统发育、地理和生态（宿主与共生体的分类、遗传和功能整合）方面的共生体功能。