Collaborative Research: Camponotine Ants and their Little Helpers: Phylogenomics of a Hyperdiverse Insect Clade and its Bacterial Endosymbionts (CAnBE)

合作研究：Camponotine 蚂蚁和它们的小帮手：超多样化昆虫进化枝及其细菌内共生体的系统基因组学 (CAnBE)

• 批准号: 1856425
• 负责人: Jennifer Wernegreen
• 金额: $ 34.8万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1856425&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Camponotine; Ants; their

Recent years have seen an explosion of curiosity and interest in the microbial associates of humans, especially symbiotic associations with gut microbiota that convey benefits to human health. Such nutritional symbioses occur frequently across many different organisms, including primates, plants, and insects. This research will investigate the joint evolutionary history of a highly successful and diverse group of insects, carpenter ants and their relatives, and the bacteria Blochmannia. Carpenter ants are the most diverse and abundant group of ants in the world - most kids have encountered them while playing outside. All carpenter ants carry Blochmannia bacteria inside their gut cells, making the bacterium an endosymbiont. Both organisms rely on one another to survive. Evidence indicates that carpenter ants and Blochmannia have maintained a close nutritional partnership for tens of millions of years. Obligate symbiotic associations among different kinds of organisms can profoundly impact the nature and tempo of the evolution of both partners, and microbial endosymbionts have been suggested to have played important roles in the diversification of some insect groups. This research will determine how the carpenter ants and their relatives evolved alongside Blochmannia. The findings will improve our understanding of how symbioses arise and are maintained in animals, with potential implications for the evolution of human-associated microbial systems. Moreover, the project will emphasize public education in ant biodiversity and microbial symbioses, and the training of early-career scientists.This research will infer the phylogeny, divergence times, and biogeographic history of ants in the tribe Camponotini, and use this comparative framework to advance systematic and co-evolutionary studies of their endosymbiotic bacteria Blochmannia. Like other obligate endosymbionts, Blochmannia exhibits substantial genome reduction compared to free-living bacteria. Genome evolution and functional variation in Blochmannia will be evaluated across a phylogenetically representative selection of camponotine ants with contrasting morphological and ecological attributes. By jointly elucidating the ant and endosymbiont evolutionary histories, the project will address such questions as: (1) What are the major features of Blochmannia genome evolution across the Camponotini clade? (2) What processes shape rates and patterns of Blochmannia sequence evolution? (3) Is Blochmannia gene content variation associated with particular camponotine host attributes? By linking phylogenetic and trait data on the ants to functional genomic properties of the bacteria we will gain an understanding of the selective forces and constraints underlying this remarkable symbiosis. A detailed phylogeny of the camponotine ants will also create a strong foundation for much-needed monographic work on this taxonomically neglected group, and allow the development of more effective identification tools.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.

近年来，人们对人类的微生物伴侣的好奇心和兴趣爆炸，尤其是与肠道微生物群的共生关联，从而传达了对人类健康的好处。这种营养共生经常发生在许多不同的生物中，包括灵长类动物，植物和昆虫。这项研究将研究一群非常成功，多样化的昆虫，木匠及其亲戚以及细菌Blochmannia的联合进化历史。木匠蚂蚁是世界上最多样化，最丰富的蚂蚁 - 大多数孩子在外面玩耍时遇到了它们。所有木匠蚂蚁在其肠道细胞内携带蓝骨细菌，使细菌成为内共生菌。这两种生物都彼此依靠来生存。证据表明，木匠蚂蚁和布洛赫曼尼亚在数千万年内保持了密切的营养伙伴关系。不同种类的生物之间的强大共生关联可以深刻影响双方伴侣进化的性质和节奏，而微生物内共生菌则被认为在某些昆虫群体的多元化中起着重要作用。这项研究将决定木匠及其亲戚如何与Blochmannia一起演变。这些发现将提高我们对共生性如何出现和维持在动物中的理解，对与人类相关的微生物系统的进化产生了潜在的影响。此外，该项目将强调蚂蚁生物多样性和微生物共生的公共教育，以及对早期职业科学家的培训。这项研究将推断出tribe camponotini中蚂蚁的系统发育，分歧时间和生物地理历史，并利用这种比较的框架来推进系统和共同进化的研究。与其他强制性内共生体一样，与自由生活细菌相比，Blochmannia表现出大量的基因组减少。将在具有对比的形态学和生态属性对比的弯曲型蚂蚁的系统发育代表性的选择中评估Blochmannia的基因组进化和功能变化。通过共同阐明蚂蚁和内共体进化史，该项目将解决以下问题：（1）整个Camponotini进化群Blochmannia基因组进化的主要特征是什么？ （2）哪些过程塑造了Blochmannia序列演变的速率和模式？ （3）Blochmannia基因含量是否与特定的弯曲寄托宿主属性相关？通过将蚂蚁的系统发育和性状数据与细菌的功能基因组特性联系起来，我们将了解这种显着共生的选择性和约束。弯曲蚂蚁的详细系统发育还将为在该分类学被忽视的群体上急需的专题工作创造一个强大的基础，并允许开发更有效的身份识别工具。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为通过使用该基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来评估Criteria的评估。