D3133: Exploring ecological influences on ant communication genetics through course-based undergraduate research (CURE)

In social insect colonies, many tasks are facilitated by chemical communication (e.g. nestmate recognition, coordinated defense), which has led to a diverse repertoire of genes and proteins associated with pheromone production and detection. Some ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are predicted to have diversified these genes or modified their expression to succeed in wide-ranging environments, various colony sizes, and unique life history strategies. However, it remains unclear how these modifications are reflected in the genomes of most species. We investigated the variation in genes associated with chemical communication in 27 ant genomes as the central project of a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Our class of 33 students grouped species into ecologically meaningful categories, selected focal gene families involved in pheromone synthesis or reception, and collected sequence data using NCBI BLAST. We performed multiple sequence alignment using MAFFT, refined datasets by removing gene duplicates and isoforms, and analyzed them phylogenetically in IQ-TREE. The resulting gene trees were visualized using FigTree. Gene counts were compared across species groups using Student’s t-tests or ANOVA to assess how ecological differences might influence gene family size. Climate type was significantly associated with variation in desaturase (desat) gene abundance, although most other relationships showed no support. We also assessed student outcomes from our CURE using paired pre- and post-course surveys that measured changes in students’ skills, attitudes, and career goals. These data suggest that our CURE design has the potential to increase engagement of undergraduate students from a variety of backgrounds in entomology and bioinformatics research.