`MO: Exploring the Symbiotic Association Between Tropical Social Insects and Actinomycetes

微生物病原体在植物和动物中引起毒性疾病，因此是自然选择的重要因素。生物体使用各种方法来保护自己免受病原体的侵害，包括形态结构（例如，植物细胞壁，昆虫的外骨骼），生理过程（例如，免疫系统）和行为。最近对真菌生长的蚂蚁的研究发现了一种以前认识不多的宿主防御方法：宿主与放线菌目中的产寄生虫细菌的共生关系。放线菌是革兰氏阳性的丝状细菌，众所周知它们能够产生有效的抗生素。实际上，大多数已知的药学上使用的抗生素来源于放线菌。理论预测，社会性昆虫特别容易受到寄生虫的攻击，因为它们的殖民地拥有高密度的遗传同质个体（增加传播率），生活在温暖潮湿的条件下。这个微生物观测站项目探讨了社会昆虫经常与产生寄生虫的放线菌共生以帮助抵御微生物病原体的假设。这一假设将结合密集的实地采样的社会昆虫从两个热带地理位置：波多黎各和哥斯达黎加。该项目的三个具体目标是：i）使用生物脂质标记物描述与热带社会昆虫相关的广泛微生物群落，ii）通过培养依赖和培养独立方法的组合检测这些微生物群落中的放线菌，iii）通过活昆虫菌落和共生微生物的实验工作记录放线菌在宿主防御中的功能作用。这项研究将提供更多的了解放线菌在自然界中的分布和多样性，以及描述广泛的微生物群落组成与热带社会昆虫的多样性收集。所获得的结果将提供有关社会昆虫和产寄生虫放线菌之间共生关系的起源和维持的见解，并揭示这种类型的宿主防御机制在自然界中有多常见。此外，该项目将对热带微生物生态学和共生领域的培训，教育和基础设施产生直接和长期的影响。在NSF国际科学与工程办公室的共同资助下，微生物学和生态学将在国际范围内进行整合，包括3所不同的大学（U。威斯康星州，美国波多黎各和美国（哥斯达黎加）和全世界通过在互联网上公布我们的调查结果。每年将有数千名K-12学生在威斯康星州的麦迪逊和哥斯达黎加参观微生物和社会昆虫之间的共生关系展览。在哥斯达黎加产生的更广泛影响包括：在丹尼尔·詹森博士创建的外联方案之后，培训当地的副axonomists，并为改进瓜纳卡斯特保护区内的微生物学设施提供额外的捐助。该MO还将通过提供在美国大学的本科和研究生水平的研究经验，直接影响代表性不足的学生。来自波多黎各。最后，这项研究可能会导致开发新的来源，以发现可能在农业和医学中应用的新型抗生素。

Microbial pathogens cause virulent diseases in plants and animals, and thus are important agents of natural selection. Organisms use various methods to defend themselves from pathogens, including morphological structures (e.g., plant cell walls, exoskeleton in insects), physiological processes (e.g., immune systems), and behavior. Recent research on fungus-growing ants identified a previously poorly recognized approach to host defense: the symbiotic association of a host with antibiotic-producing bacteria in the order Actinomycetales. Actinomycetes are Gram-positive, filamentous bacteria that are well known for their ability to produce potent antibiotics. Indeed, the majority of known antibiotics used pharmaceutically are derived from actinomycetes. Theory predicts social insects to be especially vulnerable to parasites, given that their colonies harbor a high density of genetically homogenous individuals (increasing transmission rates) living in warm, moist conditions. This microbial observatory project explores the hypothesis that social insects frequently engage in symbiotic associations with antibiotic-producing actinomycetes to help defend against microbial pathogens. This hypothesis will be examined by combining intensive field sampling of social insects from two tropical geographic locations: Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. The three specific goals of this project are to: i) describe the broad microbial community associated with tropical social insects using biolipid markers, ii) detect actinomycetes within these microbial communities through a combination of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods, and iii) document the functional role of actinomycetes in host defense through experimental work with live insect colonies and symbiotic microorganisms. This study will provide greater understanding of the distribution and diversity of actinomycetes in nature as well as describe the broad microbial community composition associated with a diverse collection of tropical social insects. The results obtained will provide insights about the origin and maintenance of symbiotic associations between social insects and antibiotic-producing actinomycetes, as well as reveal how common this type of host defense mechanism is in nature. In addition, this project will have immediate and long lasting impacts in training, education, and infrastructure in the fields of tropical microbial ecology and symbiosis. With co-funding support from the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering, microbiology and ecology will be integrated on an international scale, including 3 different universities (U. of Wisconsin, U. of Puerto Rico and U. of Costa Rica) and worldwide by posting our findings on the internet. Thousands of K-12 students will be exposed each year to exhibits on symbiotic associations between microbes and social insects, both in Madison, WI and in Costa Rica. Broader impacts in Costa Rica include the training of local parataxonomists, following the outreach program created by Dr. Daniel Janzen, and additional contributions towards improvements of microbiology facilities within the Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG). This MO will also impact underrepresented students directly by providing undergraduate and graduate level research experiences at U. of Puerto Rico. Finally, this research could lead to the development of new sources for discovering novel antibiotics that may have applications in agriculture and medicine.