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:Leaf-cutting ants of the genera Acromyrmex and Atta live in mutualistic symbiosis with a basidiomycete fungus (Leucocoprinus gongylophorus), which they cultivate as fungal gardens in underground nest chambers. The ants provide the fungus with a growth substrate consisting of freshly cut leaf fragments. After new leaf fragments are brought into the nest, the ants chew them into smaller pieces and apply droplets of fecal fluid to the leaf pulp before depositing this mixed substrate in the fungus garden and inoculating it with small tufts of mycelium from older parts of the garden. Previous work has shown that the fecal fluid contains a range of digestive enzymes including proteases, amylases, chitinases, cellulases, pectinases, hemicellulases and laccases, and that most of these enzymes are produced by the fungal symbiont in specialized structures called gongylidia that the ants eat. After ingestion, the enzymes apparently pass unharmed through the alimentary channel of the ants and end up in the fecal fluid. Most likely this complex system is an adaptation of the ant-fungus symbiosis to a herbivorous lifestyle, as the ancient ancestors of the ants and the fungus lived as hunter-gatherers and saprotrophs, respectively. The promise of fecal fluid for getting insight into the molecular adaptations that enables the ant-fungus holosymbiont to live as a herbivore, led us to investigate the fecal fluid proteome using LC-MS/MS in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the repertoire of proteins present.
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 8–23% 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.
Project description:Leaf-cutter ants use fresh plant material to cultivate an obligate mutualistic fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus in specialized fungus gardens to access and transform nutrients from plant biomass that would otherwise be unavailable to the ants. Here, we evaluated the lipidomic differences between the leaves feeding the gardens, gongylidia produced by the fungus to feed the ants, and spatially-resolve regions of the fungus garden at initial to advanced stages of leaf degradation.
2019-10-30 | MSV000084520 | MassIVE
Project description:Differential gene expression in leaf-cutting ants after challenges with the pathogenic fungi Metarhizium and Escovopsis
| PRJEB3394 | ENA
Project description:Phylogenomic reconstruction reveals new insights into the evolution and biogeography of Atta leaf-cutting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE31344: smRNA sequencing of queen and virgin queen of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator GSE31346: Transcriptome sequencing of queen and virgin queen of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator GSE31576: Single base resolution methylome of two ants: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator Refer to individual Series
Project description:The goal of this study was to assay the extent of variation in chromatin organization between 3 ant castes (major and minor female workers and males) in one colony of Camponotus floridanus carpenter ant using ChIPseq. 45 samples total: 30 ChIP samples and 3 inputs for total histone H3, 7 histone H3 PTMs and RNA Pol II in major, minor, and male ants; CBP in major and minor ants; the major H3K27ac sample was replicated. 4 ChIP samples for H3 and H3K27ac in brains of majors and minors, and 2 inputs. 2 RNAseq samples for major and minor ants head+thorax; 4 RNAseq samples for brain (majors and minors with 2 replicates each).