High-throughput phenomics of global ant biodiversity

TL;DR

This paper introduces Antscan, a large-scale open-access database of 3D ant images, enabling detailed study of ant morphology and evolution.

Contribution

Antscan provides a high-throughput, standardized imaging resource for ant biodiversity, linking phenomics with genomics.

Findings

Antscan includes 2,193 3D datasets from 792 ant species across 212 genera.

The database is publicly accessible and supports integrative analyses with genome projects.

Standardized imaging parameters allow for automated analysis and broader scientific use.

Abstract

The big data era in biology is underway, but the study of organismal form has been slow to capitalize on advances in imaging and computation. Imaging approaches can digitize whole organisms, but low throughput has limited the effort to document morphological diversity. Here, within the open science initiative ‘Antscan’, we applied high-throughput synchrotron X-ray microtomography to capture phenotypes across a diverse and ecologically dominant insect group: ants. At https://www.antscan.info, we provide 2,193 whole-body three-dimensional ant datasets from 212 genera and 792 species to broadly cover the ant phylogeny with a global scope, also pairing phenomic data with genome sequencing projects. Scans acquired with standardized parameters facilitate automated analysis, and free access to data can broaden the audience and incentivize methods development. Antscan presents a scalable approach to create libraries of diverse anatomies, heralding an era of studies on the evolution, structure and function of organismal phenotypes.

Antscan is a publicly accessible database of synchrotron X-ray CT images of ants. The database covers almost 800 species from more than 200 genera and is coordinated with genome sequencing projects that will enable integrative analyses.

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