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: 2206732
• 负责人: Kayce Bell
• 金额: $ 53.84万
• 依托单位: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation
• 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=2206732&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.

寄生虫是地球上最常见的生命形式之一。但是，这在很大程度上尚不清楚为什么有机体会寄生某些物种而不是其他物种。吸吮许可使一种或几种哺乳动物的宿主物种寄生，但是目前尚不清楚这种有限数量的宿主是由于无法损失寄生其他物种，或者只是缺乏遇到其他宿主的机会。该研究项目将研究吸吮许可的进化史，基因和物理特征，包括人类许可，确定它们可以寄生的宿主物种。这些发现还将确定在寄生虫中重要的遗传和物理特征，以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转向新宿主的可能性，并帮助减少或减轻新寄生虫的后果。该项目将培训学生和研究人员的尖端研究方法，生成大学级课程，并利用虚拟现实经验来教育公众有关许可证及其特征的多样性。为了调查吸吮许可证中的选择和改编，该项目将使用高通量测序来构建第一个用于哺乳动物吸吮许可证（Anoplura）的系统基因组树。接下来，该项目将通过新型的机器学习算法来生成虱子形态特征和空间分布的数据库，以挖掘物种描述。第三，这项投资将组装虱子的编码基因和基因组，并使用纳米克特扫描和几何形态计量学来表征明显相关的虱子分类群的表型特征，使同一宿主物种寄生。这些数据集将集​​成到：1）日期虱子多元化事件并测试宿主 - 寄生虫代码化，2）检查虱子形态学特征和虱子特质与宿主角色的关联的演变，3）评估虱子的生物地理历史和相关的宿主的生物地理历史和分布，以及4）确定哪种基因组和形态学特征是在选择范围内的Pericatitate Parasitate parasisism sissism。该项目将确定虱子多样化和宿主协会是否主要是由历史和宿主适应的驱动，或者虱子适应能够允许寄主的多样性寄生，但由于分散有限而限于一个或几个宿主物种，并最终解决了这个问题，并最终解决了“为什么和如何成为寄生虫？”该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准评估来诚实地获得支持。