Secrets to a Successful Hunt: Integrating Genomes, Chemistry and Behaviour in Neotropical Solitary Wasps

成功狩猎的秘诀：整合新热带独居黄蜂的基因组、化学和行为

• 批准号: NE/W004437/1
• 负责人: Seirian Sumner
• 金额: $ 10.32万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FW004437%2F1
• 关键词: Secrets; Successful; Hunt; Integrating; Genomes

Aculeate wasps are understudied relative to their more popular cousins, bees and wasps, and yet are more biodiverse than bees and wasps combined. This is particularly so for the solitary wasps, who represent over 90% of all aculeate wasp species and exhibit remarkable diversity in their ecology and life-history, especially in their hunting behaviours. Solitary wasps are also the ancestors of social wasps, bees and ants; despite the significant contributions over the last decade of sociogenomics to our understanding of social evolution in insects, we lack genomic resources for solitary wasps - the critical 'starting blocks' of social evolution. Solitary wasps also provide important, but largely overlooked, ecosystem services as top predators of arthropod populations making them key to maintaining equilibrium in biodiversity. Solitary wasps are also prey-specialists and so fill a different niche to the (generalist) social wasps: they provide untapped potential to study genomic sensory mechanisms in the evolution of hunting. The only non-social wasp genome available is for the parasitic jewel wasp, which is not an Aculeate (stinging wasp) and exhibits very specialised life history; we lack any genome sequences of solitary (non-parasitic) hunting wasps. The biodiversity of wasps in Brazil is unrivalled and although there is a strong legacy of wasp research in Brazil, genomic resources for Brazilian insects are largely lacking, and Brazilian entomologists have poor access to state-of-the-art genomic tools. This project will generate the essential fundamental genomic tools and training to kick-start new fields of study in the evolutionary and ecological importance of these biodiverse insects, seeding long-term collaborative projects between UK and Brazilian (BR) researchers. Our collaborative team will integrate state-of-the-art genomic and bioinformatic techniques (UK partner) with expertise in natural history and sensory ecology (BR partners) to exploit the unrivalled biodiversity of Brazilian solitary wasps and position BR scientists as pioneers in the untapped field of solitary wasp genomics. In doing so, we will generate the first genome sequences for solitary wasps. This proposal also takes the first steps in utilising these genomic resources to address an outstanding question in insect ecology: what is the genomic basis of predator-prey evolution? By integrating genomic expertise of the UK partner with the ecological and chemical expertise of the BR partners, this project will spawn a new area of research, led by international teams of BR & UK scientists. The UK partner will train Brazilians in the critical analytical tools required to determine the molecular basis of specialist hunting behaviours in solitary wasps, including genome annotations and comparative genomics methods. With high-quality, chromo-some-level genomes in hand, we will together conduct gene evolution analyses of genes associated with chemical perception - odorant binding receptors and olfactory receptors, and determine how genomic processes have been integrated in the evolution of prey specificity. Finally, in addition to generating these essential resources, and training Brazilian researchers into genomic methods, this project will provide a conceptual and empirical springboard of a long-term collaborations between BR & UK scientists, placing us as pioneers in the molecular studies of solitary neotropical wasps.

相对于它们更受欢迎的表亲蜜蜂和黄蜂，对刺蜂的研究还不够，但它们的生物多样性比蜜蜂和黄蜂的总和还要多。这对于独居黄蜂来说尤其如此，它们占所有刺蜂物种的90%以上，并且在其生态和生活史中表现出显着的多样性，特别是在它们的狩猎行为中。独居黄蜂也是社会黄蜂，蜜蜂和蚂蚁的祖先;尽管社会基因组学在过去十年中对我们理解昆虫的社会进化做出了重大贡献，但我们缺乏独居黄蜂的基因组资源-社会进化的关键“起点”。孤独的黄蜂也提供重要的，但在很大程度上被忽视，生态系统服务的顶级捕食者的节肢动物种群，使他们的关键，以保持平衡的生物多样性。独居黄蜂也是捕食专家，因此填补了与（通才）社会黄蜂不同的利基：它们提供了尚未开发的潜力，以研究狩猎进化中的基因组感觉机制。唯一可用的非社会性黄蜂基因组是寄生的宝石黄蜂，它不是一种刺蜂（刺蜂），并表现出非常专业的生活史;我们缺乏任何孤独（非寄生）狩猎黄蜂的基因组序列。巴西黄蜂的生物多样性是无与伦比的，尽管巴西有强大的黄蜂研究遗产，但巴西昆虫的基因组资源在很大程度上缺乏，巴西昆虫学家很难获得最先进的基因组工具。该项目将产生必要的基本基因组工具和培训，以启动这些生物多样性昆虫的进化和生态重要性的新研究领域，为英国和巴西（BR）研究人员之间的长期合作项目奠定基础。我们的合作团队将整合最先进的基因组和生物信息学技术（英国合作伙伴）与自然历史和感官生态学（BR合作伙伴）的专业知识，以利用巴西孤蜂无与伦比的生物多样性，并将BR科学家定位为孤蜂基因组学未开发领域的先驱。在这样做的过程中，我们将产生第一个独居黄蜂的基因组序列。这项建议也采取了第一步，利用这些基因组资源，以解决一个悬而未决的问题，在昆虫生态学：什么是捕食者-猎物进化的基因组基础？通过将英国合作伙伴的基因组专业知识与BR合作伙伴的生态和化学专业知识相结合，该项目将产生一个由BR和英国科学家组成的国际团队领导的新研究领域。英国合作伙伴将培训巴西人掌握关键分析工具，以确定独居黄蜂专业狩猎行为的分子基础，包括基因组注释和比较基因组学方法。有了高质量的染色体水平基因组，我们将共同进行与化学感知相关的基因的基因进化分析-气味结合受体和嗅觉受体，并确定基因组过程如何整合到猎物特异性的进化中。最后，除了产生这些必要的资源，并培训巴西研究人员进入基因组方法，该项目将提供一个概念和经验的跳板BR和英国科学家之间的长期合作，使我们成为孤独的新热带区黄蜂的分子研究的先驱。