CAREER: Mechanisms of Specificity and Homeostasis in an Obligate Symbiosis: Discovery-based Research at a Regional University

职业：专性共生中的特异性和稳态机制：地区大学基于发现的研究

• 批准号: 1552822
• 负责人: Jon Seal
• 金额: $ 64.31万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Tyler
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1552822&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Mechanisms; Specificity; Homeostasis; Obligate

This project will examine the roles that bacteria play in stabilizing the interactions among the so-called fungus-gardening ants and their farmed fungi. These ants are ecologically important members of desert and forest ecosystems throughout the southern US and tropical regions of North and South America. Understanding these organisms informs us how they influence and interact with their environment. Detailed studies and experiments in this project have important societal and scientific benefits. For example, some ant-fungal symbioses are important agricultural pests. Others are sources of antibiotics and antimicrobial compounds, while others serve as models for biofuel production. This research will train undergraduate and graduate students in experimental biology, microbiology and the analysis of large molecular datasets as well as increase the national and international exposure of students at a regional university in east Texas. Outreach activities include but are not limited to (a) construction of a living leaf-cutter ant exhibit at a local museum, (b) construction of interpretative exhibits in the UT Tyler Nature Preserve (c) the development of new courses at UT Tyler that emphasize connections between the environment, biomedicine and human health (d) participating and co-organizing the annual UT Tyler Darwin Day. Symbioses (ecological associations of unrelated organisms living in close proximity) were and are crucial to the evolution and ecological success of all life on earth. One of the central issues facing the study of symbiosis is elucidating how symbioses are organized and function in a dynamic world. Fungus-gardening (attine) ants form an obligate macrosymbiosis with specific fungi that the ants grow for food, but also interact with a number of other bacteria and microfungal species. The attine symbiosis is an excellent model to address functional relationships because the ants and fungi can be experimentally disassembled and reassembled into novel combinations, thus making it possible to demonstrate links among colony and fungal performance and microbial community composition. Of particular interest in this project is the roles that the microbial communities (microbiomes) associated with attine ants and the fungi play in the maintenance of the ant-fungus community. The proposed experiments will examine how interactions with the microbiomes promote specificity and homeostasis with the various partners in this symbiosis. This discovery-based research will combine intensive field surveys, next generation sequencing, bioinformatics and experimental biology to examine the role of the bacterial communities in conferring stability between host ants and symbiotic fungi. As a result, this research has broad implications for understanding the evolution and maintenance of obligate symbioses.

这个项目将研究细菌在稳定所谓的真菌园艺蚂蚁和它们养殖的真菌之间的相互作用中所起的作用。 这些蚂蚁是整个美国南部和南北美洲热带地区沙漠和森林生态系统的重要生态成员。了解这些生物体可以告诉我们它们如何影响环境并与环境相互作用。该项目的详细研究和实验具有重要的社会和科学效益。例如，一些蚂蚁-真菌共生体是重要的农业害虫。 其他的是抗生素和抗菌化合物的来源，而其他的则是生物燃料生产的模式。这项研究将培养实验生物学，微生物学和大型分子数据集分析的本科生和研究生，并增加德克萨斯州东部地区大学学生的国内和国际曝光率。外联活动包括但不限于（a）在当地博物馆建造一个活的切叶蚁展览，（B）在德克萨斯大学泰勒自然保护区建造解释性展览，（c）在德克萨斯大学泰勒开发新课程，强调环境、生物医学和人类健康之间的联系，（d）参与和共同组织一年一度的德克萨斯大学泰勒达尔文日。共生体（生活在附近的不相关生物的生态协会）过去和现在都是地球上所有生命进化和生态成功的关键。 共生研究面临的中心问题之一是阐明共生体在动态世界中是如何组织和发挥作用的。真菌园艺（attine）蚂蚁与蚂蚁种植作为食物的特定真菌形成专性宏观共生关系，但也与许多其他细菌和微型真菌物种相互作用。阿廷共生是一个很好的模型，以解决功能关系，因为蚂蚁和真菌可以通过实验拆卸和重新组装成新的组合，从而有可能证明殖民地和真菌的性能和微生物群落组成之间的联系。在这个项目中，特别感兴趣的是与蚂蚁和真菌相关的微生物群落（微生物组）在维持蚂蚁-真菌群落中所起的作用。 拟议的实验将研究与微生物组的相互作用如何促进这种共生关系中各种伙伴的特异性和稳态。这项基于发现的研究将结合联合收割机密集的实地调查，下一代测序，生物信息学和实验生物学，以研究细菌群落在宿主蚂蚁和共生真菌之间赋予稳定性的作用。 因此，这项研究对理解专性共生体的进化和维持具有广泛的意义。