Associate Professor University of Texas Tyler, Texas, United States
Trachymyrmex arizonensis are fungus gardening ants typically found at mid elevations (1000-2000 m) in mountainous areas within the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts in central and southern Arizona, western New Mexico, and the states of Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico. Previous research has shown that both ants and fungus are host to a community of microorganisms which are known to protect colonies from invasive and harmful pathogens. It is currently unknown how much these microbe communities change, if any, while in a laboratory setting as compared to living untouched in their natural habitat. T. arizonensis colonies were excavated from the grounds of the Southwestern Research Station located in southwestern Arizona. Sterile samples of workers and fungus were collected from each colony upon excavation and stored at -80 degrees Celsius to preserve the microbiome. Sixteen weeks after excavation, sterile samples of workers and fungus were collected from the same colonies and stored under the same conditions. Here, we analyzed the microbiome of both workers and their fungus using 16s sequencing of the two cohorts to observe any changes that may occur in the microbe communities. We hypothesize that a principle components analysis will reveal a change in the relative amounts of several key microbe genera between field and lab samples.
