About

Jennifer Jo Wernegreen is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Evolutionary Genomics in the Division of Environmental Natural Sciences at Duke University. She is based at 3102 Grainger Hall, Duke University, Durham, NC. Her academic role involves research and teaching in the field of environmental and evolutionary genomics, contributing to the understanding of genetic and evolutionary processes in natural environments. Her work is situated within Duke's broader biomedical and biostatistical research community, although specific details of her research focus and contributions are not provided on the page.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Evolutionary biology
• Ecology
• Zoology

Selected publications

• Evolutionary history, novel lineages and symbiont coevolution in the ant tribe Camponotini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

  Systematic Entomology · 2025-05-20 · 2 citations

  article

  Abstract Many insect groups have acquired obligate microbial symbionts, and the resulting associations can have important ecological and evolutionary consequences. A notable example among ants is the species‐rich tribe Camponotini, whose members derive nutritional benefits from a vertically inherited bacterial endosymbiont, Blochmannia . We generate ultraconserved element (UCE) phylogenomic data for 220 ingroup and 5 outgroup taxa to reconstruct a detailed evolutionary history of the Camponotini, including the inference of divergence times and dispersal events. Under multiple modes of analysis, including both concatenation and species‐tree approaches, we recover a well‐supported backbone phylogeny comprising eight lineages: three large genera ( Camponotus , Colobopsis , Polyrhachis ) and several smaller genera or clusters of genera. Three novel lineages are uncovered that cannot be placed in any existing genus: Lathidris gen. n ., from the mountains of Mesoamerica; Retalimyrma gen. n ., from the Indian Himalayas; and Uwari gen. n ., from eastern Asia. The species in these new genera were described and placed erroneously in Camponotus . The tribe Camponotini is estimated to have a crown origin in the Eocene (median age 38.4 Ma), with successively younger crown ages for Colobopsis (22.5 Ma), Camponotus (18.6 Ma) and Polyrhachis (18.5 Ma). We infer an Australasian or Indomalayan origin for the tribe, with multiple dispersal events to the Afrotropics, Palearctic region, and New World. Phylogenetic analysis of selected Blochmannia genes from a subset of 97 camponotine taxa yields results that are largely congruent with the ant host phylogeny, at least for well‐supported nodes, but we find evidence that Blochmannia from some old lineages—especially Lathidris —may have discordant histories, suggesting possible lability of this symbiosis in the early evolution of camponotine ants.

  PublisherDOI

• Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences

  UNC Libraries · 2020-11-08

  articleOpen access

  In the last two decades, the widespread application of genetic and genomic approaches has revealed a bacterial world astonishing in its ubiquity and diversity. This review examines how a growing knowledge of the vast range of animal–bacterial interactions, whether in shared ecosystems or intimate symbioses, is fundamentally altering our understanding of animal biology. Specifically, we highlight recent technological and intellectual advances that have changed our thinking about five questions: how have bacteria facilitated the origin and evolution of animals; how do animals and bacteria affect each other’s genomes; how does normal animal development depend on bacterial partners; how is homeostasis maintained between animals and their symbionts; and how can ecological approaches deepen our understanding of the multiple levels of animal–bacterial interaction. As answers to these fundamental questions emerge, all biologists will be challenged to broaden their appreciation of these interactions and to include investigations of the relationships between and among bacteria and their animal partners as we seek a better understanding of the natural world.

  PublisherDOI

• Subsidized or stressed? Shifts in freshwater benthic microbial metagenomics along a gradient of alkaline coal mine drainage

  Limnology and Oceanography · 2019-08-15 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Chemical pollution mixtures enter aquatic environments and interact with microorganisms in eclectic ways with disparate consequences for microbial ecosystem services. Can using a thermodynamic framework help to determine the net influence of a chemical mixture on the functional capacity of benthic microbial communities? We examined this question by comparing benthic stream microbial communities exposed to a gradient of neutral‐alkaline coalmine effluent. Using a combination of approaches (metagenomics, quantitative polymerase chain reaction [qPCR], and functional assays), we show that functional genes and pathways of microbial communities growing in mine effluent differed in composition, but not diversity. The majority of functional genes and pathways that changed decreased at sites exposed to mine effluent, resulting in lower abundances of nitrogenase and methanogen genes and fermentation pathways. However, selenate reductase gene abundance increased with water and sediment concentration of an ecologically important contaminant at mined sites: selenium. Denitrification genes nosZ and nirK differed between sites: metagenome‐based nosZ increased with dissolved nitrate concentration and qPCR‐based nirK had a hump‐shaped pattern across the mining gradient. Osmoprotectant gene abundance did not change. Extracellular enzyme assays and alkaline phosphatase gene relative abundance suggested that mined stream microbial communities may be constrained by phosphorus bioavailability. Subsidies and stressors related to changes in a set of functional genes and pathways, but differences were not consistently predictable using thermodynamic expectations. This suggests that pairing hypotheses for expected subsidies and stressors with post hoc explorations can yield valuable directions for future study of how microbial functional capacity responds to pollutant mixtures.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Genomic erosion and extensive horizontal gene transfer in gut-associated Acetobacteraceae

  BMC Genomics · 2019-06-10 · 36 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: Symbiotic relationships between animals and bacteria have profound impacts on the evolutionary trajectories of each partner. Animals and gut bacteria engage in a variety of relationships, occasionally persisting over evolutionary timescales. Ants are a diverse group of animals that engage in many types of associations with taxonomically distinct groups of bacterial associates. Here, we bring into culture and characterize two closely-related strains of gut associated Acetobacteraceae (AAB) of the red carpenter ant, Camponotus chromaiodes. RESULTS: Genome sequencing, assembly, and annotation of both strains delineate stark patterns of genomic erosion and sequence divergence in gut associated AAB. We found widespread horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in these bacterial associates and report elevated gene acquisition associated with energy production and conversion, amino acid and coenzyme transport and metabolism, defense mechanisms, and lysine export. Both strains have acquired the complete NADH-quinone oxidoreductase complex, plausibly from an Enterobacteriaceae origin, likely facilitating energy production under diverse conditions. Conservation of several lysine biosynthetic and salvage pathways and accumulation of lysine export genes via HGT implicate L-lysine supplementation by both strains as a potential functional benefit for the host. These trends are contrasted by genome-wide erosion of several amino acid biosynthetic pathways and pathways in central metabolism. We perform phylogenomic analyses on both strains as well as several free living and host associated AAB. Based on their monophyly and deep divergence from other AAB, these C. chromaiodes gut associates may represent a novel genus. Together, our results demonstrate how extensive horizontal transfer between gut associates along with genome-wide deletions leads to mosaic metabolic pathways. More broadly, these patterns demonstrate that HGT and genomic erosion shape metabolic capabilities of persistent gut associates and influence their genomic evolution. CONCLUSIONS: Using comparative genomics, our study reveals substantial changes in genomic content in persistent associates of the insect gastrointestinal tract and provides evidence for the evolutionary pressures inherent to this environment. We describe patterns of genomic erosion and horizontal acquisition that result in mosaic metabolic pathways. Accordingly, the phylogenetic position of both strains of these associates form a divergent, monophyletic clade sister to gut associates of honey bees and more distantly to Gluconobacter.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Additional file 10: of Genomic erosion and extensive horizontal gene transfer in gut-associated Acetobacteraceae

  Figshare · 2019-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Table S1. Significantly differentially abundant Pfam categories from gene set enrichment analysis of AAB2 strains against other Acetobacteraceae (XLS 32 kb)

  PublisherDOI

• Additional file 9: of Genomic erosion and extensive horizontal gene transfer in gut-associated Acetobacteraceae

  Figshare · 2019-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  File S1. Amino acid alignment used for Bayesian phylogenomic analysis. (FASTA 86 kb)

  PublisherDOI

• Ancient bacterial endosymbionts of insects: Genomes as sources of insight and springboards for inquiry

  Experimental Cell Research · 2017-04-26 · 11 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• In it for the long haul: evolutionary consequences of persistent endosymbiosis

  Current Opinion in Genetics & Development · 2017-09-19 · 45 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Additional file 2: of Deep divergence and rapid evolutionary rates in gut-associated Acetobacteraceae of ants

  Figshare · 2016-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Empirical estimation of error rates for the E. coli amplicon library. (XLS 44 kb)

  PublisherDOI

• Additional file 10: of Deep divergence and rapid evolutionary rates in gut-associated Acetobacteraceae of ants

  Figshare · 2016-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Alignment file of 1,333 nucleotides and 36 taxa. This alignment was used for phylogenetic inference in Fig. 2 and Additional file 6. (TXT 48 kb)

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: MIP: How Responsive are Bacterial Endosymbionts to Physiological and Eological Variation in Their Ant Hosts?

  NSF · $402k · 2007–2010

• NIH Grant R01GM062626

  NIH · $2.5M · 2013

• Collaborative Research: MIP: How Responsive are Bacterial Endosymbionts to Physiological and Eological Variation in Their Ant Hosts?

  NSF · $26k · 2010–2014

Frequent coauthors

• Nancy A. Moran

  The University of Texas at Austin

  26 shared

• Daniel J. Funk

  Vanderbilt University

  10 shared

• Bryan Brown

  University of Washington

  10 shared

• Patrick H. Degnan

  University of California, Riverside

  8 shared

• Anthony M. Poole

  University of Auckland

  8 shared

• Seth R. Bordenstein

  Pennsylvania State University

  7 shared

• Margaret A. Riley

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  6 shared

• Adam B. Lazarus

  5 shared