Studying Biodiversity

October 25, 2016

UT Tyler Office of Marketing and Communications

UT Tyler Biology Graduate Student Studying Harvester Ants

Follow @UTTyler Tweet

October 25, 2016

Media Contact:  Hannah Buchanan
Editor/Writer–Strategic Communications & Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.539.7196 (cell)

Rachel Michelle Romo of Mansfield, a graduate biology student at The University of Texas at Tyler, is conducting research on Comanche harvester ants.

She is working alongside UT Tyler assistant professor Dr. Katrin Kellner, who received a grant from the Texas National Guard to study the ant species' colonies from both Camp Swift and Camp Maxey in Central Texas.

Serving as Romo's master's thesis, the project is part the UT Tyler Center for Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation. Its mission is to study the diversity of organisms within the world through multidisciplinary research; and faculty involved work to find practical solutions to species' declines and extinctions.

"This project is giving me the opportunity to explore this important ant and its impact on the environment, using field collections and molecular techniques," said Romo, who also closely works with her adviser, assistant professor Dr. Kate Hertweck. "I'm really excited to learn more about harvester ant population dynamics."

The team's goal is to extensively genotype the ants using microsatellite markers from Texas National Guard sites. Data will be combined with data obtained from other non-TNG sites in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. According to Kellner, little is known about the Comanche harvester ant, whose numbers are declining through habitat loss. Collected ants are currently being studied at the UT Tyler Ant Lab. Data will be processed, with findings anticipated to be completed next summer.

"These ants serve important roles in many prairies and desert ecosystems by dispersing seeds of native grasses and wildflowers, besides being the favorite food of our State Reptile, the Texas Horned Lizard," said Kellner, who has extensive experience studying ant population genetics and ecology. "Grants like this not only enable important research but also give UT Tyler students hands-on opportunities to increase their skill sets in the molecular methods as well as data analyses.

"We expect to find a greater genetic diversity in populations in Central Texas, rather than in populations further to the north, including Northeast Texas as well as Arkansas and Louisiana."

The CEBC was established in August 2015 within the UT Tyler Department of Biology as a multidisciplinary research and education organization. Involved faculty from three colleges and five departments have a distinguished record of extramurally funded research in conservation biology and biodiversity. Organisms being investigated are equally diverse and include insects, snakes, freshwater mussels, turtles and crayfish as well as plants that inhabit aquatic and terrestrial habitats. With a rapid increase in the rate of loss of biodiversity and species extinction globally, there is an urgent need to emphasize research on these topics.

Many UT Tyler undergraduate and graduate students, like Romo, have been trained in these areas.

Romo will graduate with a master of science in Spring 2018. She plans to become well versed in bioinformatics and have a deeper understanding of the ecological interactions of the ant species she is studying.
When she's not in the ant lab, Romo enjoys knitting and painting with her friends. She works as a color guard instructor at Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler.

For additional information about the center's efforts, visit uttyler.edu/cebc/.

One of the 14 campuses of the UT System, UT Tyler features excellence in teaching, research, artistic performance and community service. More than 80 undergraduate and graduate degrees are available at UT Tyler, which has an enrollment of almost 10,000 high-ability students. UT Tyler offers courses at its campuses in Tyler, Longview and Palestine as well as a location in Houston.

Biodiversity and Conservation: UT Tyler graduate student Rachel Romo of Mansfield studies ants under a microscope in the UT Tyler Ant Lab while Dr. Katrin Kellner looks on. Romo is conducting research on the Comanche harvester ants, a project a part of the university's Center for Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation.