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

NSF PRFB FY23：破译蜜罐蚂蚁系统内宿主趋同进化、劳动分工和微生物组组装之间的关系

• 批准号: 2305685
• 负责人: Charlotte Francoeur
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Francoeur, Charlotte Barnet
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305685&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; PRFB; FY23; Deciphering; relationship

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.

这项行动资助了 2023 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，即研究基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将为规则领域做出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。当不同的动物对一个问题有相似的解决方案时，动物有许多策略来应对营养挑战。微生物，如细菌和真菌。这些微生物可以为动物的饮食补充必需的营养物质或帮助消化坚硬的食物，这项研究将调查相同的微生物是否存在于一群趋同进化的蚂蚁（蜜罐蚁）中。世界上至少有 16 种蜜罐蚁，它们都在类似沙漠的环境中生活。有时，它们储存的食物会膨胀到大理石大小，由于这种分工，在食物短缺的旱季，小蚁可以为整个蚁群提供食物。不同蜜罐蚂蚁微生物组的组成（谁在那里？）和功能（它们在做什么？） 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。动物与某些微生物有联系此外，这项工作还将造福社会，因为该研究员将在各种外展活动中分享一个具有魅力且具有生物学意义的系统，并为蚂蚁游客中心做出贡献，并指导本科生和研究生研究人员。罗格斯大学 - 纽瓦克。该项目的主要目标是在多个生物尺度上表征蜜罐蚂蚁的肠道微生物组：1）同种的肠道隔室和种姓 2）同域的肠道隔室和种姓3）异源异种的肠道区室和种姓，利用培养依赖、培养独立和实验技术，包括扩增子测序、分离、全基因组测序和活菌落操作，该研究员将在分类学和功能上表征微生物。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 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。