Project name: ant metagenome

Description: Bacterial communities collected from multiple ant species plus their fungal gardens.To better understand the range and composition of bacterial communitiesbetween different attine species, we analyzed 3 species of higher attines(including 1 species from a prior study), 5 species of lower attines, and included 2 species of non-attines from a prior study. From these 10 ant species, have 4 species collected from Panama(4 from riverbank habitat and 1 species collected from meadow habitat) and6 species collected from Texas. We compared bacterial communities fromthese attines from field collected colonies of worker ants (n=30) and their fungalgardens (n=24).Additionally, we compared field vs lab ant collections. Natural ant colonies were collected in April 2010 from Panama. Coloniesfor three ant species Trachymyrmex zeteki (n=2 nests), Cyphomyrmexmuelleri (n=1), and Cyphomyrmex longiscapus (n=1) were collected for 454-pyrosequencing analyses of bacterial community composition. Three whole antworkers and small pieces of fungal gardens were placed directly into a 1 mLvial containing 100% ethanol using flame sterilized forceps and kept in a -20freezer until brought back to the University of Texas lab where they were storedin a -80 freezer. A part of the colony including the queen, workers, and fungalgarden were taken from the field and transferred back to the University of Texaswhere they were kept alive in plastic chambers and fed polenta. An additionalCyphomyrmex muelleri colony with fungal and workers collected from the labcolony only was also sampled as a control. Eight months after living in the lab,fungal and worker samples were collected into ethanol vials and placed into the -80°C freezer.

Data type: metagenome

Sample scope: Environment

Relevance: Evolution

Last updated: 2012-07-10