EAGER: Exploration of the presence and ecological significance of viral pathogens in the dynamics of Daphnia, a major pelagic grazer

EAGER：探索水蚤（一种主要的中上食草动物）动态中病毒病原体的存在及其生态意义

• 批准号: 1028898
• 负责人: Ian Hewson
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1028898&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Exploration; presence; ecological; significance

Little is known about the identity or ecological significance of viruses in freshwater ecosystems, despite well-known disease effects of viruses on plants and animals in other ecosystems. This EAGER project makes the prediction that viruses are a widespread and important component of the food web of lakes. The research will measure the diversity and abundance of viruses that infect the dominant consumers of algal production in lakes, the crustacean zooplankton. While much is understood about the factors regulating the abundance of zooplankton in lakes, viruses have been almost entirely invisible to the approaches used. It is only recently that techniques have been developed capable of identifying the DNA sequences of uncultivated viruses, and permitting identification of viruses that infect zooplankton. Because there are currently no described viruses of freshwater zooplankton, and because of the high cost of obtaining viral DNA sequences, sufficient background data do not exist to justify a wider study of zooplankton viruses. Thus, this research will break new ground by determining the identity, infection rate, and distribution of viruses infecting Daphnia, a dominant freshwater crustacean in lakes world-wide. The viral infection rate within host populations will be investigated seasonally in Oneida Lake, New York, where extensive data on Daphnia dynamics already exist. Data on viruses will be compared with birth and death rates of zooplankton to understand the role of viruses in seasonal changes of zooplankton abundance. The spatial distribution of viruses in Oneida Lake, and in other nearby lakes will also be examined. This project represents a new, interdisciplinary collaboration between a virologist and an aquatic ecologist. Newly discovered viral genes will be made freely available to the wider scientific community for comparison to studies conducted elsewhere, which will expand our knowledge of the ecological significance of viral diversity. This project will also involve several undergraduate students who will receive research training in field ecology and microbiology, including cutting-edge molecular biological techniques.

尽管病毒对其他生态系统中动植物的疾病作用众所周知，但对淡水生态系统中病毒的认同或生态意义知之甚少。 这个渴望的项目预测病毒是湖泊食品网的广泛而重要的组成部分。 这项研究将衡量感染湖泊藻类藻类藻类产量的主要消费者的病毒多样性和丰富性。 尽管关于调节湖泊中浮游动物丰富性的因素的理解很多，但病毒几乎完全看不见所使用的方法。 直到最近才开发出能够鉴定未培养病毒的DNA序列，并允许鉴定感染浮游动物的病毒。 由于目前尚无描述的淡水浮游生物病毒，并且由于获得病毒DNA序列的成本很高，因此没有足够的背景数据来证明对浮游动物病毒的更广泛研究。 因此，这项研究将通过确定感染流浪汉的病毒的身份，感染率和分布，这是全球湖泊中主要的淡水甲壳类动物。 宿主种群中的病毒感染率将在纽约的奥尼达湖进行季节性研究，那里已经存在大量有关达芙尼亚动态的数据。 将有关病毒的数据与浮游动物的出生和死亡率进行比较，以了解病毒在浮游动物丰度季节性变化中的作用。 还将检查Oneida湖中病毒的空间分布，以及附近其他湖泊的空间分布。 该项目代表了病毒学家与水生生态学家之间的新的跨学科合作。 新发现的病毒基因将免费提供给更广泛的科学界，以与其他地方进行的研究进行比较，这将扩大我们对病毒多样性的生态意义的了解。 该项目还将涉及几位本科生，他们将接受现场生态学和微生物学研究培训，包括尖端的分子生物学技术。