NEUROanatomy, neurochemistry and genotype: genetic diversity and division of labour in leaf-cutting ANTs

Informations projet

NEUROANT

N° de convention de subvention: 255463

Projet clôturé

Date de début 10 Janvier 2011

Date de fin 9 Janvier 2013

Financé au titre de

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Coût total € 240 289,60

Contribution de l’UE € 240 289,60

Coordonné par

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Royaume-Uni

Objectif

The discovery and characterizations of neuromechanisms that mediate the genotypic changes in behaviour is a premier paradigm in biology today. The difficulty in finding defined answers rests in the multiplication of confounding factors (environment, individual behavioural flexibility, genotypic variation and polygenetic traits) and the limited sample size for comparison. This project will use social insect colonies to overcome these issues to answer this question. The project will use the leaf-cutting ant, Acromrymex echinatior, as the model species because this ant has recently been shown to exhibit genetic influences on caste specialization, has colonies headed by single queens mated to multiple males, thus producing genetically diverse offspring, and has colony sizes that will produce numerous individuals from each paternal line. Therefore, ants from a single colony share a common environment, the same maternal genotype on average but can differ in their paternal genotype, and are behaviourally specialized. We will use molecular techniques to characterize the genotypic variations among behaviourally specialized ants of different patrilines from single colonies. We will combine this with testing whether there are neuroanatomical and neurochemical differences between these ants to establish the neuromechanisms underpinning genetic variation in division of labour. Ant brains will be assayed utilizing serial sectioning at the light and electron microscopy levels for brain morphology and immunocytochemistry, visualized with laser confocal microscopy and HPLC for direct measurement for biogenic amine analysis. This study will provide answers to the neuromechanisms governing genotypically derived behaviours.

Champ scientifique (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classe les projets avec EuroSciVoc, une taxonomie multilingue des domaines scientifiques, grâce à un processus semi-automatique basé sur des techniques TLN. Voir: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• sciences naturelles › sciences physiques › optique › microscopie › electron microscopy
• sciences naturelles › sciences biologiques › zoologie › entomologie
• sciences naturelles › sciences physiques › optique › microscopie › microscopie confocale
• sciences naturelles › sciences chimiques › chimie organique › amines
• sciences naturelles › sciences physiques › optique › physique des lasers

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Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Thème(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF - Marie Curie Action: "International Incoming Fellowships"

Appel à propositions

FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF
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Régime de financement

MC-IIF -

Coordinateur

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

• Contribution de l’UE: € 240 289,60
• Adresse: WOODHOUSE LANE ; LS2 9JT Leeds ; Royaume-Uni
• Région: Yorkshire and the Humber › West Yorkshire › Leeds
• Type d’activité: Établissements d’enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
• Coût total: Aucune donnée