Collaborative Research: Adaptation or opportunity? Using mammal sucking lice to determine drivers of host-parasite associations

合作研究：适应还是机遇？

• 批准号: 2206735
• 负责人: Jonathan Baker
• 金额: $ 19.45万
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2206735&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Adaptation; opportunity; Using

Parasitism is one of the most common forms of life on the planet. However, it is largely unknown why organisms parasitize some species but not others. Sucking lice parasitize one or a few mammal host species, but it is unclear if this limited number of hosts is due to the inability of a louse to parasitize other species or simply lack of opportunity to encounter additional hosts. This research project will investigate how the evolutionary history, genes, and physical traits of sucking lice, including human lice, determine what host species they can parasitize. These findings will also identify potential genetic and physical traits important in parasitism to investigate in other parasites. More broadly, this research can be used to help understand the likelihood of a parasite moving to a new host and help to reduce or mitigate the consequences of new parasites. This project will train students and researchers in cutting-edge research methods, generate college-level curricula, and use virtual reality experiences to educate the public about the diversity of lice and their traits. To investigate selection and adaptations in sucking lice, this project will use high-throughput sequencing to build the first phylogenomic tree for mammalian sucking lice (Anoplura). Next, the project will generate a database of louse morphological characters and spatial distributions through novel machine learning algorithms to mine species descriptions. Third, this investigation will assemble louse coding genes and genomes and use nanoCT scanning and geometric morphometrics to characterize phenotypic traits of distantly related louse taxa parasitizing the same host species. These datasets will be integrated to: 1) date louse diversification events and test for host-parasite codiversification, 2) examine the evolution of louse morphological characters and association of louse traits with host characters, 3) assess louse biogeographic histories and distributions relative to hosts, and 4) determine which genomic and morphological traits are under selection to facilitate parasitism. This project will determine if louse diversification and host associations are primarily driven by history and host adaptations, or if louse adaptations could permit parasitism of a diversity of hosts but are restricted to one or a few host species due to limited dispersal and ultimately address the question, “Why and how to be a parasite?”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.

寄生是地球上最常见的生命形式之一，然而，目前尚不清楚为什么生物体会寄生某些物种而不是其他物种，但目前还不清楚这种宿主数量是否有限。是由于虱子无法寄生其他物种，或者只是缺乏遇到其他宿主的机会，该研究项目将研究吸虱（包括人类虱子）的进化历史、基因和物理特征如何决定宿主。这些发现还将确定对寄生重要的潜在遗传和物理特征，以便在其他寄生虫中进行研究。更广泛地说，这项研究可用于帮助了解寄生虫感染新宿主的可能性，并有助于减少或减少寄生。该项目将为学生和研究人员提供前沿研究方法的培训，制定大学水平的课程，并利用虚拟现实体验来教育公众了解虱子的多样性及其特征，以研究虱子的选择和适应。吸吮中虱子，该项目将使用高通量测序构建第一个哺乳动物吸虱（Anoplura）系统发育树，接下来，该项目将通过新颖的机器学习算法生成虱子形态特征和空间分布的数据库，以挖掘物种描述。 ，这项研究将组装虱子编码基因和基因组，并使用纳米CT扫描和几何形态测量学来表征寄生于同一宿主物种的远缘相关虱子类群的表型特征。将被整合到：1）日期虱子多样化事件和宿主-寄生虫共同多样化测试，2）检查虱子形态特征的进化以及虱子性状与宿主特征的关联，3）评估虱子生物地理历史和相对于宿主的分布，以及4) 确定哪些基因组和形态特征正在被选择以促进寄生 该项目将确定虱子的多样化和寄主关联是否主要由历史和寄主适应驱动，或者虱子的适应。可以允许多种宿主寄生，但由于传播有限而仅限于一种或几种宿主物种，并最终解决“为什么以及如何成为寄生虫？”这个问题，该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为是值得的通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来提供支持。