Elucidating the coevolutionary dynamics in an obligate insect symbiosis

阐明专性昆虫共生中的共同进化动力学

• 批准号: 1551092
• 负责人: Nancy Moran
• 金额: $ 87.53万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1551092&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Elucidating; coevolutionary; dynamics; obligate; insect

Many insects, including pest species that harm crops and transmit disease, depend on symbiotic bacteria for survival. This community of symbiotic bacteria, known as the microbiome, lives inside their host's cells and tissues and is passed directly from mother to offspring. These bacteria often benefit their hosts, for example, by producing required nutrients missing from the diet. But symbionts also can undergo genetic changes detrimental to hosts. This project addresses whether and how detrimental evolution of symbionts affects their host insects. The focus here is on one such group, aphids, which attack most of our agricultural crops and require symbiotic bacteria in order to grow and reproduce. The research will be used as a basis for teaching basic biology and genetics to University of Texas undergraduate students, including participants in a large freshman research program. Also, the results will further understanding of a significant group of agricultural pests, potentially contributing to the development of new methods of crop protection.The experiments address how genetic variation of pea aphids affects their ability to regulate symbiotic bacteria and how genetic variation of the symbiotic bacteria affects their own multiplication within aphid hosts. The researchers measure how variation in symbiont regulation affects aphid growth and reproduction. Experimental genetic crosses of aphids that vary in levels of symbiotic bacteria will be combined with modern DNA sequencing methods to identify the parts of the aphid genome that affect symbiont numbers. In addition, symbiont strains will be transferred between aphid hosts using microinjection, to determine how different symbiont strains affect hosts.

许多昆虫，包括危害作物和传播疾病的害虫，都依赖共生细菌生存。这种共生细菌群落，被称为微生物群，生活在宿主的细胞和组织中，并直接从母亲传给后代。这些细菌通常有益于它们的宿主，例如，通过产生饮食中缺少的所需营养物质。但共生体也会经历对宿主有害的基因变化。该项目研究共生体的有害进化是否以及如何影响它们的宿主昆虫。这里的重点是蚜虫，它们攻击我们的大部分农作物，需要共生细菌才能生长和繁殖。这项研究将被用作德克萨斯大学本科生基础生物学和遗传学教学的基础，包括一个大型新生研究项目的参与者。此外，研究结果将进一步了解一组重要的农业害虫，可能有助于开发新的作物保护方法。实验研究了豌豆蚜虫的遗传变异如何影响它们调节共生细菌的能力，以及共生细菌的遗传变异如何影响它们在蚜虫宿主体内的繁殖。研究人员测量了共生体调节的变化如何影响蚜虫的生长和繁殖。共生细菌水平不同的蚜虫的实验性遗传杂交将与现代DNA测序方法相结合，以确定蚜虫基因组中影响共生细菌数量的部分。此外，通过显微注射将共生菌株在蚜虫宿主之间转移，以确定不同的共生菌株对宿主的影响。