CAREER: Unraveling post-invasion dynamics of the amphibian-killing fungus via rapid genetic diversity assessments of both hosts and pathogens

职业：通过对宿主和病原体的快速遗传多样性评估，揭示杀死两栖动物的真菌的入侵后动态

• 批准号: 2041629
• 负责人: David Rodriguez
• 金额: $ 79.77万
• 依托单位: Texas State University - San Marcos
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2041629&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Unraveling; post; invasion; dynamics

In wildlife, prominent examples of mycoses (diseases caused by fungi) include white-nose syndrome and the recent spread and emergence of snake fungal disease, but no other fungal pathogens have been more destructive to wildlife than the amphibian chytrids (genus Batrachochytrium). Chytrids are essentially ubiquitous in the environment, yet they are relatively understudied. Amphibian chytrids continue to cause population declines and species extinctions globally. Unfortunately, the most severe amphibian declines have occurred in Neotropical forests, which are also threatened by deforestation. For tropical amphibians, the threat of disease, coupled with habitat loss, requires rapid measurements of host diversity at the population scale to unravel complex disease dynamics. Studies of disease dynamics can benefit from the development and use of genetic methods that can be applied in real-time and in the field. By leveraging emerging portable technology to measure genetic diversity, this project will gather data for both hosts and pathogens to test hypotheses regarding the specificity of their interactions, determine which hosts drive spread or act as reservoirs, and contribute to amphibian conservation. The research and educational goals of the project will be implemented at a Hispanic-Serving Institution and led by a first-generation, Mexican-American Principal Investigator (PI), and thus, will increase the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM at all levels. Additionally, the project will serve to train the next generation of students and international biologists in the application of emerging genetic methodologies to address common challenges in disease ecology, which can be extrapolated to other systems where diverse hosts drive pathogen spread.The overarching goal of this project is to elucidate fungal pathogen diversity and post-invasion pathogen dynamics in equatorial forests and their understudied canopies by identifying which hosts have driven the transition from an epizootic to an enzootic pathogen. The aims of this research are to: 1) perform real-time strain detection using portable quantitative PCR instruments and DNA sequencing using portable nanopore sequencers to reveal pathogen diversity and geographic distribution along an equatorial transect, 2) parse amphibian genetic identity in a hyper-diverse assemblage to allow host-specific estimates of pathogen/strain prevalence, and 3) use cophylogenetic analyses to test for the influence of host diversity on pathogen invasions. The PI is uniquely positioned to achieve these research goals while providing experiential learning opportunities to underrepresented students in STEM at the undergraduate and graduate level.This project is being jointly funded by the Systematics and Biodiversity Cluster and the Evolutionary Processes Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation.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.

在野生动植物中，真菌的突出例子（由真菌引起的疾病）包括白鼻子综合征以及最近的蛇真菌疾病的传播和出现，但没有其他真菌病原体对野生动植物的破坏性比两栖动物更具破坏性（batrachochytrium属）。 chytrid在环境中本质上是无处不在的，但它们相对忽略了。两栖动物的chytrids继续导致人口下降，全球物种灭绝。不幸的是，新热带森林中最严重的两栖动物下降也发生了，这也受到森林砍伐的威胁。对于热带两栖动物，疾病的威胁加上栖息地的丧失，需要快速测量人口规模的宿主多样性，以揭示复杂的疾病动态。疾病动力学的研究可以受益于可以实时和现场应用的遗传方法的开发和使用。通过利用新兴的便携式技术来衡量遗传多样性，该项目将收集宿主和病原体的数据，以测试有关其相互作用的特异性的假设，确定哪些宿主驱动器扩散或充当储层，并为两栖动物的保护做出贡献。该项目的研究和教育目标将在西班牙裔服务机构实施，并由第一代墨西哥裔美国人首席研究员（PI）领导，因此，将增加各级代表性群体中代表性不足的群体的参与。此外，该项目将有助于培训下一代学生和国际生物学家在应用新兴遗传学方法方面解决疾病生态学中的共同挑战，这些方法可以推断到其他系统，在这些系统中，多样化的宿主推动病原体传播的其他系统。 epizootic到enzootic病原体。这项研究的目的是：1）使用便携式定量PCR仪器和使用便携式纳米孔测序仪进行实时应变检测，并进行DNA测序，以揭示病原体的多样性和沿赤道样带的地理分布，2）解析两栖动物的遗传学在超多元化组合中允许宿主的宿主估算的宿主估计和3）分析的宿主估计，以及3）的分析量，3）病原体入侵的多样性。 PI具有独特的位置，可以实现这些研究目标，同时提供体验式学习机会，以在本科和研究生级别的STEM中的代表性不足的学生提供不足的学生。该项目由系统和生物多样性集群共同资助，并通过在国家科学基金会的环境生物学基金会中进行了nsf的代表，并以环境生物学为基础，并以nsf的代表为基础，并以nsf的代表为基础。智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。