COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH:MOMIP: How Responsive are Bacterial Endosymbionts to Physiological and Ecological Variation in Their Host Ants?

许多生物需要有益细菌提供的重要营养才能生存、生长和繁殖。许多昆虫是专门的细菌的宿主，这些细菌只生活在宿主细胞内，提供必要的功能。我们目前对这些功能的理解主要来自细菌的测序基因组。我们知道细菌有什么基因，但我们对它们的使用方式和时间知之甚少。在这项研究中，Blochmannia细菌和弯曲蚁之间的互利共生将被用来研究细菌和它们的昆虫宿主之间的动态相互作用，并了解细菌是否足够灵活，能够在不同的条件下响应蚂蚁的需求。Camponotus在全球拥有1000多个物种，提供各种各样的饮食和自然环境。此外，与其他蚂蚁一样，弯曲蚁有不同类型的成虫或种姓(例如，蚁后和工蚁)和不同的发育阶段(幼虫、幼虫、成虫)。这个项目将解决这样一个问题，布洛赫曼尼亚有能力根据东道主不断变化和不同的需求调整自己的贡献吗？PI将比较包括不同蚂蚁种类、发育阶段和种姓在内的宿主的细菌基因表达模式和细胞密度，以澄清微生物功能和宿主生理之间的联系。通过从宿主中清除细菌的实验，PI还将探索细菌在宿主发育和建立新蚂蚁群体中所起的作用。与细菌共生体相互作用的广泛分布和意义直到最近才被认识到。这一合作努力结合了比较基因组学和功能基因组学、宿主-共生体相互作用以及昆虫营养生理学和生态学方面的专业知识。该项目将这些学科相互联系起来，以探索自然环境中微生物和动物之间的联系。该项目将推动细菌-蚂蚁共生作为一种新的模式系统，并将开发新的实验方法来研究只在宿主内生长的生态重要细菌的特定功能。这项工作的结果将阐明微生物如何对动物宿主的动态环境做出反应，以及塑造宿主-共生体共同进化的各种过程。这项基础研究将被用作课程开发、从小学到专业培训的教育和社区推广的平台。

Numerous organisms require vital nutrients provided by beneficial bacteria to live, grow and reproduce. Many insects are hosts to specialized bacteria that live only inside host cells and provide essential functions. Our current understanding of these functions comes primarily from the sequenced genomes of bacteria. We know what genes the bacteria have but we know very little about how and when they are used. In this study, a mutually beneficial symbiosis between Blochmannia bacteria and Camponotus ants will be used to examine dynamic interactions between bacteria and their insect hosts and to learn if bacteria are flexible enough to respond to ant needs under different conditions. Camponotus, with over 1,000 species worldwide, offer a wide variety of diets and natural environments. Also, Camponotus, like other ants, have different types of adults, or castes (e.g., queens and workers) and different developmental stages (larva, pupa, adult). This project will address the question, are Blochmannia capable of adjusting their contributions to changing and differing needs of their hosts? The PIs will compare bacterial gene expression patterns and cell densities across hosts that include distinct ant species, developmental stages, and castes, in order to clarify links between microbial functions and host physiology. Through experiments eliminating bacteria from hosts, the PIs will also explore the roles bacteria play in host development and the establishment of new ant colonies. The wide distribution and significance of mutualistic interactions with bacterial symbionts have only been appreciated relatively recently. This collaborative effort combines expertise in comparative and functional genomics, host-symbiont interactions, and insect nutritional physiology and ecology. The project interconnects these disciplines to explore associations between microbes and animals in the natural environment. This project will advance the bacterial-ant symbiosis as a new model system and will develop novel experimental approaches to study specific functions of ecologically important bacteria that grow only within hosts. Results of this work will shed light on how microbes respond to the dynamic environment of animal hosts and the various processes that shape host-symbiont coevolution. This basic research will be used as a platform for curriculum development, education spanning grade school to professional training, and community outreach.