INTEGRATION THROUGH BEHAVIOR and MORPHOLOGY in a SOCIAL INSECT by Pedr
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Bacterial Symbionts at the Colony and Individual Levels: Integration through Behavior and Morphology in a Social Insect Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Rodrigues, Pedro A D P. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 09/10/2021 12:27:38 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621295 BACTERIAL SYMBIONTS AT THE COLONY AND INDIVIDUAL LEVELS: INTEGRATION THROUGH BEHAVIOR AND MORPHOLOGY IN A SOCIAL INSECT by Pedro Augusto Da Pos Rodrigues __________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN ENTOMOLOGY AND INSECT SCIENCE In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Pedro Augusto Da Pos Rodrigues, titled BACTERIAL SYMBIONTS AT THE COLONY AND INDIVIDUAL LEVELS: INTEGRATION THROUGH BEHAVIOR AND MORPHOLOGY IN A SOCIAL INSECT and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _____________________________________________________ Date: August, 12, 2016 Diana E. Wheeler _____________________________________________________ Date: August, 12, 2016 Judith L. Bronstein _____________________________________________________ Date: August, 12, 2016 Goggy Davidowitz _____________________________________________________ Date: August, 12, 2016 Kirk E. Anderson _____________________________________________________ Date: August, 12, 2016 Scott Powell Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: August, 12, 2016 Dissertation Director: Diana E. Wheeler 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Pedro Augusto Da Pos Rodrigues 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very grateful for all the people that were involved in the building of this dissertation and in my formation. Diana Wheeler, my advisor, was very supportive and has encouraged me to adventure into new areas of expertise, which have shaped my career. It is because of Diana’s guidance that I am a more independent thinker today and more encouraged to learn and try new approaches in my research. Diana is an excellent advisor and I am honored to be her last student before her retirement. I am also grateful to Diana’s mother, Mrs. Eula Wheeler, who has greatly supported my research, including once when she offered her own car so that I could do field work at the Saguaro National Park. I am very grateful for the help I received from all my committee members: Kirk Anderson (USDA), Judie Bronstein, Goggy Davidowitz, Molly Hunter, and Scott Powell (George Washington University). They were all excellent mentors that contributed significantly to the improvement of my work. For Kirk, I am thankful for his guidance, support, and all the training I received while working part-time in his laboratory; together, our collaborations have helped me mature as a scientist and greatly advanced my understanding on the microbial ecology of social insects. Judie’s guidance made me a better ecologist, with a broader understanding of fundamental concepts, and a more sharp skeptic view of my ideas as well as others’ ideas; because of Judie, I am more interested in framing my work within big questions, and my writing has also substantially improved. Goggy gave me support and enthusiasm to the possibilities within and beyond my project, which was always motivating. Similarly to Judie, Goggy has also helped me improve my writing and frame my work for a broader audience and broader concepts. Molly’s mentorship helped me focus in more doable ideas and projects during my PhD. Molly was also very supportive and always available for whenever I needed help, from advice on academic issues to kindly letting me use her lab space and supplies for some of my projects. Finally, I am grateful for Scott’s help, which involved mentorship and direct collaborative work. Scott was the first to introduce me to the skills of baiting, collecting, and rearing Cephalotes ants. With Scott I learned a lot about the biology and ecology of these amazing ants. Scott and his wife, Bia, were also my first friends in Tucson, even before I left Brazil, and they greatly helped me adapting in my first few years in the US. All of my committee members were very helpful and generous with their time, and they provided me with numerous recommendation letters over these years, which were essential for succeeding in my applications for travel and research grants. In addition, there were tough times during my PhD, including hospitalizations, and my committee members were always very supportive, as friends would, for which I am very grateful. During my PhD several collaborators helped my work move forward. Michele C. Lanan (Deep Springs College) is responsible for the speed by which we were able to get all the work done for my first manuscript of this dissertation (Appendix A), including getting it published before my defense. Michele is extremely intelligent, hard-working and creative, and I have learned with her how to move forward motivated and enthusiastic. Michele also gave me confidence on the quality of my own work. Jacob Russell (Drexel University) and Piotr àukasik (University of Montana) introduced me to bioinformatics and were very supportive in different steps of my dissertation. With them, I also developed my second manuscript (Appendix B) of this dissertation. 5 My wife Corinne Stouthamer was always by my side, providing me with support and keeping me sane when my projects didn’t work out, when my part-time jobs where consuming most of my dissertation time, and when I took an overwhelming number of responsibilities. Beyond being always there for me, Corinne also contributed directly to the development of this dissertation, particularly Appendix C, in which she is a co-author. My family, on both the Stouthamer and on the Rodrigues sides, was always supportive and gave me confidence on my work. My family in Brazil had an enormous amount of faith in me and my work, by trusting that doing a PhD abroad was a good idea, and believing that studying microbial ecology of ants is important, even if they could not entirely understand how. The Stouthamers were always very supportive and very caring, helping me and Corinne throughout my PhD, from moving-in and moving-out of houses, to organizing our beautiful wedding. Bodil, Vishwas, Javier, Patricia Navarro, Rousel Orozco, Ming Huang, Kelly, Catherine, Norm, Daniel Silva, João Paulo, Lívia, Simeão, Mariana, Lewis, Tim, Liz, Avery, Tuan, Chan, and so many other friends, not necessarily in this order, were also very important in my formation. I am very thankful and lucky for the friends I have, who have always supported me. Finally, I want to thank NSF, which supported me in my first year via a grant to my advisor. During my PhD I was also supported by travel and research grants from the Center for Insect Sciences (CIS, University of Arizona), The Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC, University of Arizona), and the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI). 6 DEDICATION I dedicate this work to the scientists that, directly or indirectly, inspired me to get here: Paulo Oliveira (UNICAMP, Brazil), Ronaldo Zucchi (USP, Brazil), João M. F. Camargo (USP, Brazil), Edward O. Wilson (Harvard, USA), Bert Hölldobler (ASU, USA), and Diana Wheeler (UofA, USA). 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 10 FORMAT AND PRESENT STUDY.................................................................................... 16 REFERENCES...................................................................................................................... 19 APPENDIX A....................................................................................................................... 23 APPENDIX B......................................................................................................................