Collaborative Research: Evolution of adaptive synergism between mutualistic partners during range-limit evolution

这项研究将阐明相互作用的物种的生态和进化过程将如何对其范围内的气候变化做出反应，并对边缘栖息地物种的保护产生影响。气候变化改变了物种的分布，对嵌入复杂生态相互作用的物种产生了重大后果，例如互惠共生(例如，植物-传粉者或宿主-微生物互惠)。这个项目的重点是昆虫和真菌的互惠共生，切叶蚁种植食用菌，这是美国西南部和整个新大陆的农业害虫。切叶蚁互惠共生是研究共生如何应对气候变化的理想方法，因为切叶蚁是生态系统中的主要组成部分，而且可以在实验室条件下模拟气候变化下预期的温度变化压力来操纵实验中的蚂蚁和真菌组合。这项研究采用了为研究生物体内基因间相互作用而开发的技术，以测试蚂蚁与真菌的协同作用是否增强了对温度-应力的适应，从而确定了切叶蚂蚁北部(美国)和南部(乌拉圭/阿根廷)的分布界限。更好地理解相互作用的物种如何应对气候变化具有科学和社会益处，有助于开发保护边缘栖息地物种的模型，并有助于预测互惠互利的害虫物种在气候变化下是否会变得更成问题。与乌拉圭和阿根廷研究人员的合作将在国际环境下为美国研究人员提供培训。该项目是一个主要研究机构、一个地区机构和一个为代表性不足的学生提供服务的机构之间的合作，一些实地研究将在该机构进行，它将加强长期互动，并有助于促进加强STEM教育举措。此外，与乌拉圭和阿根廷研究人员的合作将在国际环境下为美国研究人员提供培训。将在公立学校、博物馆和自然中心举办研讨会，以促进对当地生物多样性、保护和环境变化下的挑战的理解。

This research will elucidate how the ecological and evolutionary processes of interacting species will respond to climate change at their range limits, with implications for conservation of species in marginal habitat. Climate change alters species distributions, with major consequences for species embedded in complex ecological interactions, such as mutualistic symbioses (e.g., plant-pollinator or host-microbe mutualisms). This project focuses on an insect-fungus mutualism, leafcutter ants cultivating fungi for food, which are agricultural pests in the southwestern USA and throughout the New World. Leafcutter mutualisms are ideal to study how symbioses respond to climate change because leafcutter ants are dominant components in ecosystems, and because experimental ant-fungus combinations can be manipulated under laboratory conditions simulating the altered temperature stresses expected under climate change. This research adapts techniques developed for the study of gene-by-gene interactions within an organism to test whether ant-by-fungus synergy enhances temperature-stress adaptations and thus determines range-limits at the northern (USA) and southern (Uruguay/Argentina) distributional limits of leafcutter ants. Improved understanding of how interacting species respond to climate change has scientific and societal benefits, contributing to development of models for conservation of species in marginal habitat, and to models predicting whether mutualistic pest species may become more problematic under climate change. Collaborations with researchers in Uruguay and Argentina will provide training of US researchers in an international setting. This project is a collaboration among a major research institution, a regional institution, and an institution serving underrepresented students where some of the field research will be conducted, and will strengthen long term interactions and help foster enhanced STEM education initiatives. Furthermore, collaborations with researchers in Uruguay and Argentina will provide training of US researchers in an international setting. Workshops will be conducted at public schools, museums, and nature centers to foster understanding of local biodiversity, conservation, and challenges under environmental change.