Posted 29 Jun 2010 - 16:24 by Genetics Administrator
The leaf-cutter ant symbiosis originated approximately 10 million years ago. Players in this coevolved system include the ants, the fungal cultivar the ants farm, a protective bacterial symbiont and a fungal parasite targeting the ants' garden. We sequenced the leaf-cutter ant, Atta cephalotes, genome using 454 pyrosequencing. In addition to genomic DNA isolated from haploid males, we sequenced a normalized transcript library generated from workers across castes. We are now manually annotating genes as a part of the Ant Genomics Consortium. My focus is on annotating chemosensory genes. In attempting to make this a genetic model system for symbiosis we are also sequencing the other leaf-cutter ant symbionts.
