Metagenomics of bacteria and bacteriophages of ants and their nests

人类面临致病微生物的持续攻击，治疗受到抗生素耐药性的威胁。一个可能的答案是噬菌体--感染细菌的病毒。它们开始被视为细菌种群动态和进化的重要驱动力，也被视为新的治疗剂。噬菌体是地球上最丰富的生物，然而，与具有高疾病威胁的动物相关的噬菌体还没有得到很好的描述。蚂蚁生活在融合的社会群体中，个体生活在非常接近的地方，通常密度很高。这种社会生活使疾病传播成为可能，特别是当群体成员在更广泛的环境中觅食时，带着资源和疾病返回。口对口喂食会增加疾病的传播，而自我平衡调节的巢会促进微生物的繁衍。重要的是，蚂蚁的社会性由来已久，早在1.5亿年前就已经进化。因此，这种高威胁的环境塑造了蚂蚁数千万年来的进化。鉴于蚂蚁在许多环境中具有生态优势，它们已经进化出有效的机制来应对这种疾病的袭击。我们将使用下一代测序来描述微生物群落，重点是与蚂蚁及其巢穴相关的噬菌体。通过对环境DNA的鸟枪式测序，我们将构建元基因组，从而能够研究具有不同生活方式和疾病威胁水平的蚂蚁中微生物群落的组成、多样性和功能作用。

Humans are faced with continual attack from disease-causing microorganisms, and treatment is threatened by antibiotic resistance. A possible answer is bacteriophage - viruses that infect bacteria. They are beginning to be viewed as important drivers of bacterial population dynamics and evolution and also as novel therapeutic agents. Bacteriophage are the most abundant organisms on Earth, and yet bacteriophage associating with animals with high disease threats have not been well characterised. Ants live in integrated social groups where individuals live in close proximity, often at very high densities. Such social living makes disease transmission likely, especially as colony members forage in the wider environment, returning with resources and disease. Trophollaxis - mouth to mouth feeding - increases disease transmission, while homeostatically regulated nests encourage microorganisms to flourish. Importantly, sociality in ants is longstanding, having evolved >150 million years ago. This high threat environment has therefore shaped ant evolution for many tens of millions of years. Given ants are ecologically dominant in many environments, they have evolved effective mechanisms to cope with this disease onslaught. We will use next generation sequencing to characterise microbial communities, with a focus on bacteriophage, associated with ants and their nests. Through shotgun sequencing of environmental DNA, we will construct metagenomes which will enable investigation of the composition, diversity and functional roles of microbial communities in ants with different lifestyles and levels of disease threat.