Project description:Transcriptome analysis to determine the impact of oral exposure (in a sugar meal) to the liquid supernatant (i.e. LB culture media) of Chromobacterium sp. Panama biofilm culture. The biofilm supernatant (i.e. media) was first filtered with a 0.2uM filter to remove all live bacterial cells. It was then mixed with 10% sucrose, and a control sucrose meal was mixed with filtered LB. Mosquitoes were exposed to each sugar meal for 24 hours and then midguts were dissected from 20 adult females per treatment. The entire experiment was performed 4 independent times.
Project description:Mass spectrometry imaging is a powerful analytical technique for detecting and determining spatial distributions of molecules within a sample. Typically, mass spectrometry imaging is limited to the analysis of thin tissue sections taken from the middle of a sample. In this work, we present a mass spectrometry imaging method for the detection of compounds produced by bacteria on the outside surface of ant exoskeletons in response to pathogen exposure. Fungus-growing ants have a specialized mutualism with Pseudonocardia, a bacterium that lives on the ants’ exoskeletons and helps protect their fungal garden food source from harmful pathogens. The developed method allows for visualization of bacterial-derived compounds on the ant exoskeleton. This method demonstrates the capability to detect compounds that are specifically localized to the bacterial patch on ant exoskeletons, shows good reproducibility across individual ants, and achieves accurate mass measurements within 5 ppm error when using a high-resolution, accurate-mass mass spectrometer.
Project description:Eusocial insects have evolved the capacity to generate adults with distinct morphological, reproductive and behavioural phenotypes from the same genome. Recent studies suggest that RNA editing might enhance the diversity of gene products at the post-transcriptional level, particularly to induce functional changes in the nervous system. Using head samples from the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior, we compare RNA editomes across eusocial castes, identifying ca. 11,000 RNA editing sites in gynes, large workers and small workers. Those editing sites map to 800 genes functionally enriched for neurotransmission, circadian rhythm, temperature response, RNA splicing and carboxylic acid biosynthesis. Most A. echinatior editing sites are species specific, but 8M-bM-^@M-^S23% are conserved across ant subfamilies and likely to have been important for the evolution of eusociality in ants. The level of editing varies for the same site between castes, suggesting that RNA editing might be a general mechanism that shapes caste behaviour in ants. Analysis of genome-wide RNA editing in three different female castes of the the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE22678: Transcriptome sequencing and analysis of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator GSE22679: Small RNA sequencing and analysis of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator Refer to individual Series