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

职业：探索蚂蚁社会寄生虫物种形成和进化的模式和机制：整合教学和研究以促进生物进化中的生物多样性发现

• 批准号: 1943626
• 负责人: Christian Rabeling
• 金额: $ 99.18万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-01-15 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1943626&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Exploring; patterns; mechanisms; ant

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.

这项研究将揭开一个复杂的寄生虫-宿主系统的进化史，特别是蚂蚁物种，这些蚂蚁物种是其他蚂蚁物种群体的寄生虫。这种寄生虫-宿主系统已经在蚂蚁物种中进化了许多次，但尚不清楚这种趋同进化的行为如何影响社会寄生虫的物种形成模式。该项目采用了一种综合的方法，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)利用生物多样性发现的新方法发现蚂蚁社会寄生虫的全球生物多样性，以有效地划定物种并修订整个蚂蚁生命树上的蚂蚁社会寄生虫的分类；(Iii)破译形成新的社会寄生虫物种的遗传机制。综上所述，该项目整合了几种理解生物进化生物学的方法，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主要目标。异位繁殖中通过进化生殖隔离进行物种形成是被广泛接受的。然而，理论和经验研究已经证实，在没有地理隔离的情况下，生殖隔离可以在同宗共处中演变。从对蚂蚁社会寄生虫的研究中，已经积累了共地物种形成的经验证据。Inquiline寄生虫生活在其他物种的生存空间。蚂蚁的群居寄生虫是其他蚂蚁物种，通常关系密切，是高度专业化的幼虫。寄生物种利用寄主的社会组织，自私地最大化自己的个体生殖产出。与其他通过共域物种形成进化的物种相比，蚂蚁社会寄生虫的多样化组合是一个有前途的、未得到充分利用的比较研究系统，因为目前已知的蚂蚁社会寄生虫种类约为34属390种。大量独立进化的寄生虫物种为探索与蚂蚁社会寄生虫独立进化起源相关的生态环境和遗传机制的比较研究提供了独特的条件。这个项目集研究、教育和推广于一体，因此将造福于整个社会。研究生和本科生将在实验室和现场接受生物进化生物学方面的培训，亚利桑那州立大学(ASU)将开设新的本科野外生物学课程。与南美和欧洲同事的合作将促进国际学生交换和全球科学界的长期加强。该外展计划将(I)在凤凰城都会区的低代表和弱势群体比例较高的小学、初中和高中培训教师，(Ii)将社区同事学生纳入亚利桑那州立大学的教学和研究活动，(Iii)利用社会寄生虫作为工具开始讨论科学中有争议或社会负载的隐喻，以及(Iv)提供学生工作坊，以整合整个动物界的社会和育儿寄生虫研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Southern Record of the Xenobiotic Ant Formicoxenus quebecensis from Eastern Wisconsin

威斯康星州东部异生蚂蚁 Formicoxenus quebecensis 的南方记录

• DOI: 10.13102/sociobiology.v70i2.8374
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Sociobiology
• 影响因子: 0.9
• 作者: Doering, Grant Navid;Prebus, Matthew
• 通讯作者: Prebus, Matthew

Novel insights into the evolution of social parasitism revealed by a global phylogeny of Formica ants

福米卡蚁的全球系统发育揭示了对社会寄生进化的新见解

• DOI: 10.1101/2020.12.17.423324
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Borowiec, M.L.;Cover, S.P.;Rabeling, C.
• 通讯作者: Rabeling, C.

Genomic tools for behavioural ecologists to understand repeatable individual differences in behaviour.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0411-4
• 发表时间: 2018-06
• 期刊: NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
• 影响因子: 16.8
• 作者: Bengston, Sarah E;Dahan, Romain A;Donaldson, Zoe;Phelps, Steven M;van Oers, Kees;Sih, Andrew;Bell, Alison M
• 通讯作者: Bell, Alison M

Woody encroachment affects multiple dimensions of ant diversity in a neotropical savanna

• DOI: 10.1111/icad.12633
• 发表时间: 2021-12
• 期刊: Insect Conservation and Diversity
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Karen C. Neves;Bernardo Santos;T. Schultz;D. Gotzek;R. C. Abreu;G. Durigan;H. Vasconcelos

Integrating morphology with phylogenomics to describe four island endemic species of Temnothorax from Sicily and Malta (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

• DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.833.1891
• 发表时间: 2022-08-04
• 期刊: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF TAXONOMY
• 影响因子: 1.2
• 作者: Schifani，Enrico;Prebus，Matthew M.;Alicata，Antonio
• 通讯作者: Alicata，Antonio