| Project/Area Number |
19F19819
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 外国 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 45020:Evolutionary biology-related
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| Research Institution | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University |
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Principal Investigator |
ブギーニョン トマ (2019-2020) 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 進化ゲノミクスユニット, 准教授 (40817558)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
HELLEMANS Simon・Fernand・R 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 進化ゲノミクスユニット, ポストドクトラルスカラー (20947858)
HELLEMANS SIMON 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 進化ゲノミクスユニット, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-11-08 – 2022-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
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| Keywords | Termites / Wolbachia / Symbioses / Ultraconserved Elements / Mitogenomes / Co-Phylogenies / termite / wolbachia / phylogenetic / coevolution / termites / cardinium / symbiosis |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
In this project, we will study the infection dynamics of intracellular bacterial symbionts of termites. We will perform phylogenetic analyses to study the evolutionary history of individual bacterial lineages and determine their rates of infection and extinction. These analyses will detect parts of the trees that coevolve with termites, suggesting mutualistic relationships. Finally, we will compare the genomic content of putatively mutualistic strains and parasitic strains in order to identify relevant genetic mechanisms.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Many arthropods are infected by intracellular bacteria, such as Wolbachia, Cardinium and Rickettsia. These bacteria have profound influences on the ecology and evolution of their host and evolved several strategies to increase their own reproductive fitness, sometimes with costs for their hosts. Not all are parasites: some evolved mutualistic relationships with their hosts. Few studies investigated the epidemiological status of Wolbachia at a large scale. In this project, we investigated its infection dynamics in South American termites from whole metagenome sequencing of 2392 termite samples encompassing over 500 species.
We reconstructed the termite phylogeny using mitogenomes and nuclear ultraconserved elements (UCEs). Baits targeting a total of 50616 UCEs were specifically designed for termites during this project. UCE-based phylogenies recovered with high support the deep- and shallow-level relationships recovered as yet only by transcriptome-enabled dataset, thereby demonstrating our bait set to be reliable and informative. Dedicated database paper and companion phylogenies were published.
Read-mapping approach indicated that 1205 samples were infected by Wolbachia, with two supergroups dominating the South American infection landscape. In a few instances, the majority of samples from single species, with contrasted lifestyles, were infected on their whole range. Hence, such intimate symbioses might explain these species’ ecological success (in prep). These results carve the path to functional genomics and unravelling the true nature of termites-Wolbachia symbioses.
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| Research Progress Status |
令和3年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
令和3年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。
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