D3162: Bacteriophage propagation and phage transfer in Camponotus floridanus ants

Bacteriophages (phages) are a type of virus that targets bacterial cells and is found where bacteria concentration is high. Ants live in a microbe-rich environment and have Prophylaxis behaviors to avoid infections in their colony. The prophylaxis behavior creates a colony-level immunity, which allows ants to transfer nutrients, and antimicrobial substances from their crop. This study’s goal is to propagate phages and observe if Camponotus floridanus ants can maintain phages in their body and perform their trophallaxis behavior to transfer the phages to another member of their colony. The phages were isolated from raw sewage and propagated to create a high-tittered solution of phages. Then I will feed the solution to the ants and see if they will retain the phage presence through a plaque assay and a spot test. The Lytic type of phages will be used for this experiment to show a clearing to show the presence of the phages. Once phage presence is verified, I will turn to phase 2 of the experiment where I will pair an ant with phage fed to it with an ant without phage fed to it and allow the ants to interact for 2 days. After two days I will test to verify if the ant without phage fed to it has phage presence from the ant with phage fed to it. If the ant has phage presence it shows that there is a transfer of antimicrobial presence between the colony members and shows the communal immune transfer between ants.