CAREER: Exploring the patterns and mechanisms of ant social parasite speciation and evolution: integrating teaching and research to foster biodiversity discovery in organismal evol

这项研究将揭示一个复杂的寄生虫-宿主系统的进化史，特别是蚂蚁物种是其他蚂蚁物种殖民地的寄生虫。这种寄主-寄主系统已经在蚂蚁物种中进化了很多次，但尚不清楚这种趋同进化行为如何影响社会性寄生虫的物种形成模式。该项目采用综合方法，包括：(i)利用蚂蚁基因组的遗传数据重建蚂蚁社会寄生虫的物种形成模式和进化史；（ii）利用新的生物多样性发现方法揭示蚂蚁群居寄生物的全球生物多样性，从而有效地划分物种，修订蚂蚁群居寄生物在蚂蚁生命树上的分类；（iii）破译新的群居寄生物种形成的遗传机制。总之，这个项目整合了几种方法来理解生物进化生物学，探索寄生谱系是如何重复起源的。了解生物多样性的起源和维持是进化生物学的一个主要目标。在异种中，通过进化的生殖隔离来形成物种是被广泛接受的。然而，理论和实证研究已经确定，在没有地理隔离的情况下，生殖隔离可以在同乡中演变。同域物种形成的经验证据已经从蚁群寄生虫的研究中积累起来。寄生在其他物种的生存空间。蚂蚁的群居寄生物是其他种类的蚂蚁，通常是密切相关的，是高度专业化的幼虫寄生物。寄生物种利用寄主的社会组织来自私地最大化它们的个体繁殖产出。与其他通过同域物种形成进化而来的物种相比，蚂蚁群居寄生虫的多样性组合是一个有前途的、未被充分利用的比较研究系统，因为目前已知的蚂蚁群居寄生虫大约有390种，来自34个属。大量独立进化的寄生物种为探索蚂蚁群居寄生独立进化起源的生态环境和遗传机制提供了独特的比较研究条件。这个项目集研究、教育和推广于一体，因此将造福整个社会。研究生和本科生将在实验室和现场接受有机进化生物学的培训，亚利桑那州立大学（ASU）将开设新的本科生野外生物学课程。与南美和欧洲同事的合作将促进国际学生交流和长期加强全球科学界。外展计划将(i)培训凤凰城都会区弱势群体比例较高的小学、初中和高中的教师，（ii）将社区同事学生融入亚利桑那州立大学的教学和研究活动，（iii）使用社会寄生虫作为工具，就科学中有争议的或带有社会色彩的隐喻展开对话。（四）提供学生研讨会，整合整个动物王国的社会和幼虫寄生研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research will unravel the evolutionary history of a complex parasite-host system, specifically, ant species that are parasites of the colonies of other ant species. This parasite-host system has evolved many times across ant species, but it is unknown how this convergently evolved behavior has affected speciation patterns in the social parasites. The project uses an integrative approach that includes (i) reconstructing the speciation patterns and the evolutionary history of ant social parasites using genetic data from ant genomes; (ii) unearthing the global biodiversity of ant social parasites using new methods to biodiversity discovery to effectively delimit species and revise the classification of ant social parasites across the ant tree of life; (iii) deciphering the genetic mechanisms underlying the formation of new social parasite species. In summary, this project integrates several approaches to understand organismal evolutionary biology, exploring how parasitic lineages originate repeatedly.Understanding the origin and maintenance of biological diversity is a major goal in evolutionary biology. Speciation by evolving reproductive isolation in allopatry is well accepted. However, theoretical and empirical studies have established that reproductive isolation can evolve in sympatry, in the absence of geographical isolation. Empirical evidence for sympatric speciation has been accumulating from studies of ant inquiline social parasites. Inquiline parasites inhabit the living space of other species. The social parasites of ants are other ant species, often closely related, that are highly specialized brood parasites. The parasitic species exploit their hosts’ social organization to selfishly maximize their individual reproductive output. In contrast to other species that evolved via sympatric speciation, the diverse assemblage of ant social parasites is a promising and underutilized system for comparative study because at the moment approximately 390 ant social parasite species are known from 34 genera. The high number of independently evolved parasite species provides unique conditions for comparative research exploring the ecological circumstances and the genetic mechanisms associated with the independent evolutionary origins of ant social parasites. This project integrates research, education, and outreach, and will therefore benefit society in general. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in organismal evolutionary biology in both the laboratory and the field, and novel undergraduate field biology classes will be developed at Arizona State University (ASU). Collaborations with colleagues in South America and Europe will facilitate the international exchange of students and long-term enhancement of a global scientific community. The outreach program will (i) train teachers at elementary, middle, and high schools with high percentages of under-represented and disadvantaged groups in the Phoenix Metro area, (ii) integrate community colleague students into teaching and research activities at ASU, (iii) use social parasites as a tool to start a conversation about controversial or socially loaded metaphors in science, and (iv) offer student workshops to integrate social and brood parasitism research across the animal kingdom.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.