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

Francoeur, Charlotte Barnet, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

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.