AMIABLE · Advanced MIcroscopy of Attine ant BacteriaL Endosymbionts
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-09-01 → 2017-08-31
- EU contribution
- €200,195
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Advanced MIcroscopy of Attine ant BacteriaL Endosymbionts
Symbiosis, a diverse range of interactions between different species, has shaped life on earth: from the first eukaryote evolving as cooperation between several prokaryote elements, to the bacterial biofilms that define gut community of any organism. Colonies of advanced eusocial insects are second in complexity only to our own human societies, and among these the Latin American fungus-growing ants stand out because they have in common with human societies that they farm their own food. Because the fungus-growing ants have a very specialized diet, their gut bacterial communities are simpler than those of humans, making them an auspicious model system for gut microbiota studies. To enable humans to manipulate insect populations for the benefit of society, it will be crucial to better understand why and how symbiotic bacteria including gut microbiota are necessary for insect survival as these bacteria are believed to be a major reason for the overall abundance of both pest and beneficial insects in most terrestrial environments. The central aim of this project was to understand the nature of the symbiosis between leaf-cutting attine ants and their gut bacteria, the functional role of which was to a large extent unknown.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
SummaryMost animals crucially depend on bacterial symbionts for digesting food and for optimal health, and such associations are particularly relevant for farming societies that produce their own food. Next to humans, the fungus-growing ants have realized the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth and also these societies depend on the services of multiple bacterial symbionts. The experienced researcher is a cell biologist with state-of-the-art training in electron microscopy who teamed up with the Copenhagen Centre for Social Evolution (CSE) to realize a uniquely interdisciplinary research program of microbial symbiosis. She focuses on three abundant gut bacteria of fungus-growing ants that were recently discovered by the host group, and which appear to function as nutritional and disease resistance mutualists in this complex symbiosis that has become one of the best-studied model systems of social evolution. The objectives of this project are: 1. To reconstruct the acquisition process of symbiotic bacteria during development of individual leaf-cutting ants; 2. To resolve structural adaptations of the bacteria for intracellular versus extracellular lifestyles. Neither of these objectives have been addressed before and both have high potential to change the way in which biologists think about bacterial symbioses. The project includes training-through-research of the researcher in molecular biology, bioinformatics and evolutionary theory, and considerable knowledge transfer in advanced microscopy from the researcher to the CSE host group. The project has been initiated with CSE funding, proven to be very synergistic and highly feasible, and the researcher has already built a collaborative network in Copenhagen. The present application seeks to realize the project’s full implementation, allowing the European Research Area to harvest the full benefits of the pioneering work already initiated.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · KOBENHAVNCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union