Collaborative Research: MIP: How Responsive are Bacterial Endosymbionts to Physiological and Eological Variation in Their Ant Hosts?

许多生物体需要有益细菌提供的重要营养物质来生存，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并提供基本功能。 我们目前对这些功能的理解主要来自细菌的基因组测序。 我们知道细菌有什么基因，但我们对如何以及何时使用它们知之甚少。 在这项研究中，Blochmannia细菌和Camponotus蚂蚁之间的互利共生关系将被用来研究细菌和昆虫宿主之间的动态相互作用，并了解细菌是否足够灵活，以应对不同条件下的蚂蚁需求。 Camponotus在世界各地有1,000多个物种，提供各种各样的饮食和自然环境。 此外，Camponotus，像其他蚂蚁一样，有不同类型的成年人，或种姓（例如，蚁后和工蜂）和不同的发育阶段（幼虫、蛹、成虫）。 这个项目将解决的问题，是Blochmannia能够调整自己的贡献，以改变和不同的需要，他们的主机？ PI将比较宿主之间的细菌基因表达模式和细胞密度，包括不同的蚂蚁物种，发育阶段和种姓，以澄清微生物功能和宿主生理学之间的联系。 研究员亦会透过消灭寄主体内细菌的实验，探讨细菌在寄主发育及新蚁群建立过程中所扮演的角色。 与细菌共生体的互惠相互作用的广泛分布和意义只是最近才被认识到。 这种合作努力结合了比较和功能基因组学，宿主共生体相互作用，昆虫营养生理学和生态学的专业知识。 该项目将这些学科联系起来，探索自然环境中微生物和动物之间的联系。 该项目将推进细菌-蚂蚁共生作为一种新的模型系统，并将开发新的实验方法来研究仅在宿主体内生长的具有重要生态意义的细菌的特定功能。 这项工作的结果将揭示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。 这一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.