NSF PRFB FY23: Deciphering the relationship between host convergent evolution, division of labor, and microbiome assembly within the honeypot ant system

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。动物在自然界中有许多克服挑战的策略。当不同的动物对同一个问题有相似的解决方案时，这被称为趋同进化。为了解决营养问题，许多动物与细菌和真菌等微生物合作。这些微生物可以为动物的饮食补充必需的营养，或者帮助消化难消化的食物。这项研究将调查相同的微生物是否会出现在一组趋同进化的蚂蚁——蜜罐蚂蚁身上。世界上至少有16种蜜罐蚂蚁，它们在类似沙漠的环境中生存的策略是相同的。所有的蜜罐蚁群都有一个特殊的工蚁阶级，叫做蚁群。饱腹者将食物储存在腹部，有时储存的食物会膨胀到弹珠大小。由于这种分工，在食物短缺的旱季，蚁群可以为整个蚁群提供食物。这项工作将描述不同蜜罐蚂蚁的微生物组的组成（谁在那里？）和功能（他们在做什么？）。这将导致更深入地了解进化和分工对微生物群落的影响，反之亦然。由于所有动物都以某种方式与微生物联系在一起，这些结果可以应用于蚂蚁以外的领域。此外，这项工作将有利于社会，因为研究员将在各种推广工作中分享一个有魅力和生物学上有趣的系统。该研究员将为蚂蚁访客中心做出贡献，并指导罗格斯大学纽瓦克分校的本科生和研究生研究人员。本项目的主要目的是在多个生物学尺度上表征蜜罐蚂蚁的肠道微生物群：1)同种异种的肠道菌室和种姓；2)同域异种的肠道菌室和种姓；3)异域异种的肠道菌室和种姓。利用培养依赖性、非培养依赖性和实验技术，包括扩增子测序、分离、全基因组测序和活菌落操作，该研究员将对与蜜罐蚂蚁消化系统相关的微生物进行分类和功能表征。该项目将特别关注Myrmecocystus spp.（北美），Tapinolepis trimenii（南非）和Camponotus inflatus（澳大利亚），以及国际蜜罐蚂蚁研究人员联盟的合作者可以获得的任何其他谱系。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Animals have many strategies for overcoming challenges in nature. When different animals share a similar solution to a problem, this is known as convergent evolution. For nutritional challenges, many animals team up with microbes, such as bacteria and fungi. The microbes can supplement the animal’s diet with essential nutrients or help digest tough foods. This research will investigate if the same microbes will be present across a group of convergently-evolved ants, the honeypot ants. There are at least sixteen types of honeypot ants across the world that share a strategy for living in desert-like environments. All honeypot ant colonies have a specialized class of workers, called repletes. Repletes store food in their abdomen, sometimes swelling up to the size of a marble with all the food they store. Due to this division of labor, the repletes can provide food for the entire ant colony during the dry season, when food is in short supply. This work will characterize the composition (who is there?) and function (what are they doing?) of the microbiomes of different honeypot ants. This will result in a deeper understanding of the impacts of evolution and division of labor on microbial communities, and vice versa. Since all animals associate with microbes in some way, these results could be applied beyond ants. Also, this work will benefit society as the fellow will be sharing a charismatic and biologically interesting system in various outreach efforts. The fellow will contribute to an Ant Visitor Center and mentor undergraduate and graduate researchers at Rutgers University – Newark.The main objective of this project is to characterize the gut microbiome of honeypot ants at multiple biological scales: 1) Gut compartments and castes of conspecifics 2) Gut compartments and castes of sympatric heterospecifics, and 3) Gut compartments and castes of allopatric heterospecifics. Using culture-dependent, culture-independent, and experimental techniques, including amplicon sequencing, isolations, whole genome sequencing, and live colony manipulation, the fellow will taxonomically and functionally characterize the microbes associated with the digestive system of honeypot ants. This project will specifically focus on Myrmecocystus spp. (North America), Tapinolepis trimenii (South Africa), and Camponotus inflatus (Australia), as well as any other lineages that collaborators in the International Consortium of Honeypot Ant Researchers can obtain.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.