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

职业：利用分子和形态学数据，通过非新异翅目白蚁的眼睛了解社会性和共生性

• 批准号: 1453157
• 负责人: Jessica Ware
• 金额: $ 81.76万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University Newark
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-15 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1453157&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Understanding; sociality; symbiosis; through

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.

白蚁在经济上很重要，因为它们的木材喂养会影响人类的居住和商业环境。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。白蚁是一种群居昆虫，以植物为食，从草到硬木。但是，如果没有生活在肠道中的称为内共生体的小型生物体，它们就无法消化这种富含纤维素的饮食。 白蚁的饮食因物种而异，其肠道内共生体的类型也不同。白蚁在进化过程中可能多次改变饮食并改变内共生体。该项目利用遗传、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延伸到罗格斯大学本科学习并最终延伸到研究生研究的学术渠道来实现。纽瓦克高中的学生将通过罗格斯大学现有的 Aim High 项目接受实地考察和科学方法方面的培训，从而增加招收贫困学生接受高等教育的机会。本科生和研究生将通过 Aim High 获得教学经验，同时接受实验室和实地考察的培训。该项目将通过彻底的全球分类样本测试白蚁总科及其内共生体的大型、全面的系统发育假设。系统发育重建将基于分子和形态学数据，并将分析共同进化模式。分歧估计分析、生物地理学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。将估计低等白蚁的多样化率变化，并在饮食、行为和形态适应的背景下进行评估。这项工作将用于解决白蚁进化、饮食变化或肠道内共生微生物的变化哪个先发生的问题？它进一步探讨这些变化如何推动白蚁社会行为的演变？通过利用关系知识测试生态作用和内共生体多样性与白蚁形态和饮食的相关性，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。