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)

基本信息

批准号：
1856571
负责人：
Bonnie Blaimer
金额：
$ 34.07万
依托单位：
North Carolina State 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 2020-03-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1856571&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Camponotine Ants their

项目摘要

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，人们对人类微生物的好奇心和兴趣激增，特别是与肠道微生物群的共生关系，为人类健康带来益处。这种营养共生现象经常发生在许多不同的生物体中，包括灵长类动物、植物和昆虫。这项研究将调查高度成功且多样化的昆虫、木蚁及其近亲以及布洛曼尼亚细菌的联合进化史。木蚁是世界上最多样化、最丰富的蚂蚁群体——大多数孩子在外面玩耍时都遇到过它们。所有木蚁的肠道细胞内都携带布洛曼尼亚细菌，使该细菌成为内共生体。两种生物相互依赖才能生存。有证据表明，木蚁和布洛曼蚁数千万年来一直保持着密切的营养伙伴关系。不同种类生物之间的专性共生关联可以深刻地影响双方进化的性质和节奏，并且微生物内共生体被认为在一些昆虫类群的多样化中发挥了重要作用。这项研究将确定木蚁及其亲属如何与布洛赫曼蚁一起进化。这些发现将增进我们对动物中共生如何产生和维持的理解，对人类相关微生物系统的进化具有潜在影响。此外，该项目将强调蚂蚁生物多样性和微生物共生方面的公众教育，以及对早期职业科学家的培训。这项研究将推断Camponotini部落蚂蚁的系统发育、分化时间和生物地理历史，并利用这一比较框架推进内共生细菌 Blochmannia 的系统和共同进化研究。与其他专性内共生菌一样，与自由生活的细菌相比，布洛曼菌表现出显着的基因组减少。 Blochmannia 的基因组进化和功能变异将通过具有对比形态和生态属性的系统发育代表性选择的 Camponotine 蚂蚁进行评估。通过共同阐明蚂蚁和内共生体的进化历史，该项目将解决以下问题：（1）Camponotini 分支的 Blochmannia 基因组进化的主要特征是什么？ (2) 布洛赫曼尼亚序列演化的形状速率和模式是怎样处理的？ (3) 布洛曼尼亚基因含量变异是否与特定的坎波诺丁宿主属性相关？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关系背后的选择性力量和限制。 Camponotine 蚂蚁的详细系统发育学也将为这一分类学上被忽视的群体急需的专题研究奠定坚实的基础，并允许开发更有效的识别工具。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估被认为值得支持利用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准。