Collaborative Research: PurSUiT: Systematic viral discovery through structured search of host phylogeny

合作研究：PurSUiT：通过宿主系统发育的结构化搜索系统性病毒发现

• 批准号: 2302678
• 负责人: Joseph Cook
• 金额: $ 20.59万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2302678&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; PurSUiT; Systematic; viral

Viral pathogens are usually researched intensively after they emerge and cause disease in humans or domestic animals. This leads to a deep understanding of the few viruses that affect humans, but largely ignores the vast, unknown diversity of viruses in the rest of mammals. This project leverages the high-quality, cryogenically frozen tissue collections of wild mammals that are stored in natural history museums to systematically sequence, discover, and characterize viral diversity from across the Mammal Tree of Life. This project will contribute directly to the understanding of host-virus evolution, inform the frequency and distance at which ‘spillover’ or host-switches can occur, and identify high and low risk viral pathogens. By connecting the viral sequences back to a physical mammal specimen at a museum, this project provides a foundation for detailed future investigations of specific pathogens, pathogen communities, and the associated genetic variation in their mammal hosts. To further reinforce the connection between microbial research and natural history museums, this project will collaborate with Project ECHO’s Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA) network to foster international exchange of ideas and build capacity in biodiverse countries, where pathogen emergence is more likely. This project uses a sampling strategy that optimizes evolutionary distances and geographic coverage to select mammal specimens to survey for viruses. Initially, a core set of nearly 600 mammalian species in 25 of 27 orders will be targeted to provide a mammal-wide survey of viral diversity. Based on this initial effort, lineages that have especially rich viral communities will be selected for more intensive sampling that will allow for analyses of virus-virus interactions and host-virus co-evolution (or lack thereof). New and known viral sequences will be reconstructed bioinformatically and used to test long-standing assumptions related to viral diversity, host traits, and host diversity, including which lineages represent “high risk” or “low risk” to humans (e.g., bats, rodents, and primates as traditionally “high risk” groups). Pairs of mammal and virus lineages that show elevated rates of host switching will be used to identify the ecological and environmental traits that are associated with such events.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.

病毒病原体在出现并引起人类或家畜疾病后通常会受到广泛的研究，这导致人们对人类的少数病毒有深入的了解，但在很大程度上忽视了其他哺乳动物中存在的巨大的、未知的病毒多样性。利用自然历史博物馆中存储的高质量、低温冷冻的野生哺乳动物组织来系统地测序、发现和表征整个哺乳动物生命之树的病毒多样性。该项目将直接有助于了解宿主病毒。进化，告知通过将病毒序列与博物馆的哺乳动物标本联系起来，该项目可以确定“溢出”或宿主转换发生的频率和距离，并识别高风险和低风险的病毒病原体。为了加强微生物研究和自然历史博物馆之间的联系，该项目将与 ECHO 项目的博物馆和美洲新兴病原体 (MEPA) 网络合作，进一步促进特定病原体、病原体群落及其哺乳动物宿主的相关遗传变异。该项目采用优化进化距离和地理覆盖范围的抽样策略来选择哺乳动物样本来调查病毒，并在生物多样性国家进行国际交流和能力建设。 27 个目中的 25 个将旨在提供全哺乳动物范围内的病毒多样性调查，基于这一初步努力，将选择具有特别丰富的病毒群落的谱系进行更密集的采样，以便分析病毒与病毒的相互作用。宿主病毒新的和已知的病毒序列将被生物信息学重建，并用于测试与病毒多样性、宿主特征和宿主多样性相关的长期假设，包括哪些谱系代表“高风险”或“低风险”。 ”对人类（例如，蝙蝠、啮齿动物和灵长类动物作为传统上的“高风险”群体），显示宿主转换率的哺乳动物和病毒谱系对将被用来识别与此类事件增加相关的生态和环境特征。 .此奖项通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。