NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Host-Microbiome Ecology

2019 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：宿主微生物组生态学

• 批准号: 1907311
• 负责人: Joseph Madison
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Madison, Joseph
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-03-01 至 2023-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1907311&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY; NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. This project aims to understand the historical significance of host-associated microbes (microbes that live inside another organism. These include bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. By using museum collections of amphibians, the fellow will examine host-associated gut microbes over time in two regions of the United States. Amphibian museum specimens are especially useful in this regard because of the way in which these specimens were preserved. These specimens preserved fluids, which provide a snapshot of the host-associated microbes at the time of collection. This work will have important impacts on host-associated microbe ecology and evolution. Additionally, the proposed work will involve the participation of Native American students from reservations in South Dakota to expand scientific interest and careers among this underrepresented group.It is hypothesized that microbial gut communities will vary in diversity and function both within and between amphibian assemblages over spatiotemporal gradients. Such changes may also precede disease related declines of the associated hosts, such as chytridiomycosis in amphibians. These hypotheses will be tested by utilizing recently developed techniques for isolation and purification of degraded DNA. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing will be used for generating host-associated gut metagenome data. Sequence-based taxonomic and functional analysis will be completed using a variety of bioinformatics and machine-learning software on high-performance computing resources. By utilizing museum specimens and their associated locality information, the fellow will also explicate changes in host-associated microbiomes of amphibian assemblages in response to differential land-use and land-cover (LULC) in the Midwest and Northeast United States from the 1880s to present. Statistical mixed-effects models will be implemented for evaluating changes in host-associated microbial metagenomes and will include the integration of publicly available LULC datasets. The project will therefore further the training of the fellow in GIS for integration into microbial ecology research, and also promote the mentoring of students from underrepresented groups in using museum collections for answering questions pertaining to microbial ecology and evolution.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该行动为使用生物收集的研究基金为2019财年的生物学生物学奖学金提供了资金。奖学金支持将以创新的方式利用生物收藏的研究员的研究和培训。该项目旨在了解与宿主相关的微生物（生活在另一种有机体内的微生物。这些都包括细菌，原生动物和真菌。通过使用两栖动物的博物馆集合，该同伴将检查与宿主相关的肠肠杆菌，随着时间的流逝，美国的两个地区都保留了这些规范。在收集时提供与宿主相关的微生物的快照，这项工作将对宿主相关的微生物生态学和进化产生重要的影响。以及在时空梯度上的两栖动物组合之间。这种变化也可能是相关宿主与疾病相关的下降之前的，例如两栖动物中的乳腺癌。这些假设将通过利用最近开发的技术来隔离和纯化DNA的脱位。 shot弹枪宏基因组测序将用于生成与宿主相关的肠道元素数据。基于序列的分类学和功能分析将使用有关高性能计算资源的各种生物信息学和机器学习软件完成。 通过利用博物馆标本及其相关的地方信息，该研究员还将阐明两栖动物组合的宿主相关微生物组的变化，以响应美国中西部和美国东北部的差异土地使用和土地覆盖（LULC），从1880年代从1880年代到现在。将实施统计混合效应模型，以评估与宿主相关的微生物元基因组的变化，并将包括公开可用的LULC数据集的集成。因此，该项目将进一步培训GIS中的研究员，以整合到微生物生态学研究中，并促进代表性不足的群体的指导，以使用博物馆收藏来回答与微生物生态学和进化有关的问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基础智力的智能评估来评估NSF的法定任务，并具有评估的支持。