CAREER: Understanding sociality and symbiosis through the eye of non-Neoisopteran termites using molecular and morphological data

白蚁在经济上很重要，因为它们取食木材影响人类居住和商业环境。白蚁在生态上也很重要，因为它们消化陆地上最丰富的大分子之一——纤维素。白蚁是群居昆虫，吃植物，从草到硬木。但是，如果没有生活在它们肠道中的被称为内共生体的小生物，它们就无法消化这种富含纤维素的食物。白蚁的饮食因物种而异，其肠道内共生体的类型也各不相同。白蚁可能在进化过程中多次改变了饮食和内共生物质。本项目利用遗传、行为、饮食和形态（外观）特征来了解白蚁的进化。此外，这项研究将侧重于指导、招募和留住来自科学领域贫困或代表性不足群体的学生。这一目标将通过从纽瓦克高中到罗格斯大学本科学习，最终到研究生研究的学术管道来实现。来自纽瓦克高中的学生将通过罗格斯大学（Rutgers University）现有的Aim high项目接受实地考察和科学方法方面的培训，以增加对贫困学生接受高等教育的招收。本科生和研究生将通过Aim High获得教学经验，同时还将接受实验室和实地工作的培训。该项目将通过一个全面的全球分类群样本，对白蚁科及其内共生生物的大而全面的系统发育假设进行测试。系统发育重建将基于分子和形态数据，并将分析共同进化模式。分化估计分析、生物地理分析和祖先状态重建将使我们能够评估全球功能和系统发育多样性变化的时间。在饮食、行为和形态适应的背景下，对低等白蚁多样化率的变化进行估计和评估。这项工作将用于解决白蚁进化中哪个先出现的问题，是饮食的改变还是生活在肠道中的内共生微生物的改变？它进一步研究了这些变化是如何推动白蚁社会行为的进化的？通过对白蚁形态和食性与生态作用和内共生生物多样性相关性测试的相关知识，研究人员可以确定白蚁生活史的哪些方面导致了新物种的形成。

Termites are economically important because their wood feeding affects human residential and business environments. Termites are also ecologically important because they digest one of the most abundant macromolecules on land, cellulose. Termites are social insects that eat plants, from grasses to hard wood. But they cannot digest this diet, rich in cellulose, without small organisms that live in their gut known as endosymbionts. The diet of termites varies among species, and so too does the type of endosymbiont found in their gut. It is possible that termites have changed diets and changed endosymbionts multiple times during their evolution. This project uses genetic, behavioral, diet, and morphological (appearance) traits to understand termite evolution. In addition, this research will focus on mentoring, recruiting and retaining students from underprivileged or underrepresented groups in science. This goal will be reached using an academic pipeline extending from Newark High Schools to undergraduate study at Rutgers University and ultimately to graduate research. Students from Newark high schools will be trained in fieldwork and the scientific method via Aim High, an existing program through Rutgers University, increasing recruitment of underprivileged students to post-secondary education. Undergraduate and graduate students will gain teaching experience through Aim High, while also being trained in laboratory and fieldwork.This project will test large,comprehensive phylogenetic hypotheses of Termitoidea and their endosymbionts with a thorough, global taxon sample. Phylogenetic reconstructions will be based on both molecular and morphological data, and will be analyzed for co-evolutionary patterns. Divergence estimation analyses, biogeographical analyses and ancestral-state reconstruction will allow us to evaluate the timing of shifts in functional and phylogenetic diversity globally. Diversification rate shifts in the lower termites will be estimated, and evaluated in the context of diet, behavior and morphological adaptations. This work will be used to address the question of which came first for termite evolution, shifts in diet or shifts in the endosymbiont microbes living in their guts? It further examines how these changes drove the evolution of termite social behavior? By using knowledge of relationships in testing for the correlation of ecological roles and endosymbiont diversity with termite morphology and diet, researchers can determine what aspects of termite life history led to the formation of new species.