BRC-BIO: Establishing a new model system to study the relationship between gut microbiome and host niche specialization

BRC-BIO：建立新的模型系统来研究肠道微生物组与宿主生态位专业化之间的关系

• 批准号: 2312984
• 负责人: Lily Khadempour
• 金额: $ 49.79万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University Newark
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2312984&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BRC; BIO; Establishing; new; model

Most animals house a community of microorganisms in their guts. These microbes can allow the host animal to consume a particular diet or have a particular lifestyle, which the host would not be able to do otherwise. This research will examine the gut microbiome of charismatic insects called honeypot ants. Some of the honeypot ant colony members are highly specialized so that their guts can expand to be many times larger than a typical ant. They do this to store food when food is plentiful, so that they can feed the colony when food is limited. This research will answer questions about how the gut microbiome may help with food preservation over many months of storage, how it may supplement the diet of the ants with nutrients they may not get directly from their food, and how it may help to detoxify some of the food material that the ants consume. This research into the gut microbiomes of honeypot ants can inform, more generally, on how microorganisms can help their hosts to have specialized diets and lifestyles and can help us to understand how microbes can be used for long-term food storage. The honeypot ants will also be included in an Ant Visitor Center that will educate the public and get children excited about these animals and how scientists study them. Honeypot ants are an ideal system to study the relationship between gut microbiome and convergent evolution, having at least 16 independently evolved genera in three different subfamilies found in different locations around the world. This research provides the starting point into the microbiome of honeypot ants with one genus, Myrmecocystus, found in the semi-arid habitats of North America. The PI and their team will use field collections, community amplicon sequencing, proteomics, metabolomics, pH measurements and HPLC to characterize the microbial community and chemical environment in the guts of six species of Myrmecocystus. This work will be followed by experiments with microbial cultures and live ant colonies to determine whether microbiota detoxify plant defense compounds, provide supplemental nutrients, or prevent food spoilage. Data from these experiments, chemical analyses, amplicon sequencing, isolate genome sequencing and metatranscriptomics will be used to determine how food deprivation and plant toxins impact microbiomes.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.

大多数动物的肠道内都有微生物群落。这些微生物可以让宿主动物食用特定的饮食或具有特定的生活方式，否则宿主将无法做到这一点。这项研究将检查被称为蜜罐蚁的魅力昆虫的肠道微生物组。一些蜜罐蚁群成员高度专业化，因此它们的内脏可以扩张到比典型蚂蚁大很多倍。它们这样做是为了在食物充足时储存食物，以便在食物有限时为群体提供食物。这项研究将回答以下问题：肠道微生物组如何帮助食物在数月的储存过程中保存，它如何为蚂蚁的饮食补充它们可能无法直接从食物中获得的营养，以及它如何帮助解毒一些食物。蚂蚁消耗的食物材料。这项对蜜罐蚂蚁肠道微生物组的研究可以更广泛地告诉我们微生物如何帮助其宿主拥有专门的饮食和生活方式，并可以帮助我们了解微生物如何用于长期食物储存。蜜罐蚁也将被纳入蚂蚁游客中心，该中心将教育公众并让孩子们对这些动物以及科学家如何研究它们感到兴奋。蜜罐蚁是研究肠道微生物组与趋同进化之间关系的理想系统，在世界各地不同地点发现的三个不同亚科中至少有 16 个独立进化的属。这项研究为了解北美半干旱栖息地中发现的蜜罐蚁属（Myrmecocystus）的微生物组提供了起点。 PI 及其团队将利用现场采集、群落扩增子测序、蛋白质组学、代谢组学、pH 测量和 HPLC 来表征六种 Myrmecocystus 肠道内的微生物群落和化学环境。这项工作之后将进行微生物培养和活蚁群实验，以确定微生物群是否能够解毒植物防御化合物、提供补充营养或防止食物腐败。这些实验、化学分析、扩增子测序、分离基因组测序和元转录组学的数据将用于确定食物匮乏和植物毒素如何影响微生物组。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势进行评估，被认为值得支持以及更广泛的影响审查标准。