NSF PRFB FY23: Deciphering the relationship between host convergent evolution, division of labor, and microbiome assembly within the honeypot ant system

NSF PRFB FY23：破译蜜罐蚂蚁系统内宿主趋同进化、劳动分工和微生物组组装之间的关系

• 批准号: 2305685
• 负责人: Charlotte Francoeur
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Francoeur, Charlotte Barnet
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305685&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; PRFB; FY23; Deciphering; relationship

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Animals have many strategies for overcoming challenges in nature. When different animals share a similar solution to a problem, this is known as convergent evolution. For nutritional challenges, many animals team up with microbes, such as bacteria and fungi. The microbes can supplement the animal’s diet with essential nutrients or help digest tough foods. This research will investigate if the same microbes will be present across a group of convergently-evolved ants, the honeypot ants. There are at least sixteen types of honeypot ants across the world that share a strategy for living in desert-like environments. All honeypot ant colonies have a specialized class of workers, called repletes. Repletes store food in their abdomen, sometimes swelling up to the size of a marble with all the food they store. Due to this division of labor, the repletes can provide food for the entire ant colony during the dry season, when food is in short supply. This work will characterize the composition (who is there?) and function (what are they doing?) of the microbiomes of different honeypot ants. This will result in a deeper understanding of the impacts of evolution and division of labor on microbial communities, and vice versa. Since all animals associate with microbes in some way, these results could be applied beyond ants. Also, this work will benefit society as the fellow will be sharing a charismatic and biologically interesting system in various outreach efforts. The fellow will contribute to an Ant Visitor Center and mentor undergraduate and graduate researchers at Rutgers University – Newark.The main objective of this project is to characterize the gut microbiome of honeypot ants at multiple biological scales: 1) Gut compartments and castes of conspecifics 2) Gut compartments and castes of sympatric heterospecifics, and 3) Gut compartments and castes of allopatric heterospecifics. Using culture-dependent, culture-independent, and experimental techniques, including amplicon sequencing, isolations, whole genome sequencing, and live colony manipulation, the fellow will taxonomically and functionally characterize the microbes associated with the digestive system of honeypot ants. This project will specifically focus on Myrmecocystus spp. (North America), Tapinolepis trimenii (South Africa), and Camponotus inflatus (Australia), as well as any other lineages that collaborators in the International Consortium of Honeypot Ant Researchers can obtain.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.

该行动资助了2023财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，即研究基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。动物有许多策略来克服自然界的挑战。当不同的动物对一个问题有相似的解决方案时，这被称为趋同进化。为了应对营养挑战，许多动物与细菌和真菌等微生物合作。这些微生物可以为动物的饮食补充必需的营养素，或者帮助消化坚韧食物。这项研究将调查相同的微生物是否会出现在一组趋同进化的蚂蚁中，即蜜罐蚂蚁。世界上至少有16种蜜罐蚂蚁，它们都有一种在类似沙漠的环境中生存的策略。所有的蜜罐蚁群都有一个特殊的工人阶级，称为repletes。它们在腹部储存食物，有时会因为储存的食物而膨胀到大理石大小。由于这种分工，在旱季食物短缺的时候，吃饱了的蚂蚁可以为整个蚁群提供食物。这项工作将表征组成（谁在那里？）和功能（他们在做什么？）不同蜜罐蚁的微生物群落。这将导致更深入地了解进化和劳动分工对微生物群落的影响，反之亦然。由于所有动物都以某种方式与微生物联系在一起，这些结果可以应用于蚂蚁之外。此外，这项工作将有利于社会，因为该研究员将分享一个有魅力的和生物学上有趣的系统，在各种推广工作。该项目的主要目标是在多个生物尺度上表征蜜罐蚂蚁的肠道微生物组：1）同种的肠道隔间和等级2）同域异源的肠道隔间和等级3）异域异源的肠道隔间和等级。使用依赖于培养，独立于培养和实验技术，包括扩增子测序，分离，全基因组测序和活菌落操作，该研究员将分类和功能特征的微生物与消化系统的蜜罐蚂蚁。该项目将特别关注Myrmecocystus spp。（北美）、Tapinolepis trimenii（南非）和Camponotus inflatus（澳大利亚），以及国际蜜罐蚂蚁研究者联盟（International Consortium of Honeypot Ant Researchers）的合作者可以获得的任何其他谱系。该奖项反映了NSF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。