NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2018

Miller Julie S, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2018, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The goal of this project is to understand the role of group size in the evolution of self-organization in ant colonies. Across social insects, larger colony sizes are associated with greater organizational complexity, but we still don't know how enlarging group size causes this pattern. Colony organization may result from natural selection to reduce potential gridlock of large groups, targeting individual behaviors or the shape of the colony's nest, both of which may govern interactions. Alternatively, complex organization may instead be a beneficial by-product of increasing group size. The fellow will test these hypotheses by comparing species of ants with different colony sizes. The findings from this research will help elucidate the evolutionary forces structuring groups more generally, from cell aggregations to animal societies. The fellow plans to broaden participation of under-represented groups by partnering with teachers at her former schools to create classroom workshops in which students collect data for this project, thereby creating opportunities for underrepresented K-12 students to participate directly in research, and will extend the same outreach opportunities to other minority-serving LA public schools partnered with UCLA's MESA School Program. The project has three, interrelated objectives that examine how colony organization has evolved in response to increasing group size. First, the fellow will distinguish whether increasing colony size leads to costly versus beneficial changes by enlarging the groups of small-colony ant species (Temnothorax) and comparing them to naturally large colony species of equivalent size (Tapinoma, Linepithema). Second, the fellow will determine the contribution of nest architecture in structuring colony organization by housing colonies in subdivided or single-chambered nests. To facilitate comparison between distantly related ant species in the above objectives, the fellow will generate standardized metrics of (1) colony organization from social networks of nutrient flow and (2) colony functionality by assessing how well foragers respond to the nutritional needs of the entire colony. The fellow will learn to fluorescently label these nutrients and track them within the colony using computer vision. Third, the fellow will investigate which aspects of nest architecture have been adapted for large colony size. The fellow will lead k-12 students in to complete this final objective by allowing classroom ant colonies of various sizes to excavate nests in observable structures. The fellow will use the classroom ant colonies to facilitate educational workshops that will be targeted to help satisfy national teaching standards in STEM fields (NGSS) at the appropriate grade level. 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.