NSF PRFB FY23: Host-pathogen dynamics in response to resource pulses: nutrients, immunity and disease transmission

NSF PRFB FY23：响应资源脉冲的宿主病原体动态：营养、免疫和疾病传播

• 批准号: 2305798
• 负责人: Julie Davis
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Davis, Julie
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305798&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; PRFB; FY23; Host; pathogen

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Globally, disease and habitat loss lead to biodiversity loss. In agricultural landscapes, bees sometimes have less food from flowering plants and can be exposed to more disease. However, mass blooming cover crops that produce large amounts of flowers could improve conditions for bees. For example, increased food supply from mass blooming crops may improve bee nutrition and disease resistance. Additionally, mass blooms could either reduce or increase chances for bees to spread diseases at shared flowers, likely depending on the amount of other, non-crop flowers in the surrounding landscape. Identifying the contexts in which different farming practices can support pollinators improves conservation efforts. This project asks how non-crop flower abundance affects the extent to which mass blooming cover crops affect bee disease resistance and spread.This research will use an agriculturally important native bee, Osmia lignaria, and its associated pathogens to evaluate how resource pulses from a cover crop (vetch, Vicia villosa) interact with the surrounding landscape (abundance of non-mass bloom floral resources, NMBR) to affect bee immunity, pathogen infection, and pathogen transmission. The fellow will place Osmia lignaria nests at sites manipulated to either have or not have mass blooming vetch. Sites in the mass bloom and control treatments will each exist along a gradient of NMBR. To assess how mass bloom affects pathogen infection, adult bees will be sampled throughout bloom, and larvae and pollen provisions will be sampled at the end of bloom to quantify pathogens and nutrients. To assess how mass bloom affects opportunities for disease transmission, total and infected bee and flower density will be quantified in vetch and NMBR patches. To assess whether mass bloom and NMBR affect immunity, the fellow will conduct an immune challenge and measure immune gene expression in bees fed pollen from diets that mimic the quality and quantity of floral resources at each site, in laboratory experiments. By disentangling landscape- versus molecular-scale drivers of host-pathogen dynamics, this work will improve predictive power of when pathogens affect populations and communities. The fellow will extend the impact of their work by 1) training two undergraduate students, 2) conducting trainings on inclusive teaching in Biology, and 3) communicating results and investigating applications with conservation and agricultural professionals.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.

该行动资助 2023 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，旨在调查基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。在全球范围内，疾病和栖息地丧失导致生物多样性丧失。在农业景观中，蜜蜂有时从开花植物中获得的食物较少，并且可能会接触到更多的疾病。然而，大量开花、产生大量花朵的覆盖作物可以改善蜜蜂的生存条件。例如，大量开花作物增加食物供应可能会改善蜜蜂的营养和抗病能力。此外，大规模开花可能会减少或增加蜜蜂在共享花朵上传播疾病的机会，这可能取决于周围景观中其他非农作物花卉的数量。确定不同的耕作方式可以支持授粉媒介的背景可以改善保护工作。该项目探讨非农作物花卉丰度如何影响大规模开花的覆盖作物对蜜蜂抗病性和传播的影响程度。这项研究将使用农业上重要的本地蜜蜂 Osmia lignaria 及其相关病原体来评估覆盖作物的资源脉冲作物（野豌豆、野豌豆）与周围景观（丰富的非大量开花花卉资源，NMBR）相互作用，影响蜜蜂免疫、病原体感染和病原体传播。该研究员将把壁蜂巢穴放置在经过控制有或没有大量开花的野豌豆的地点。大规模水华和对照处理中的位点将各自沿着 NMBR 梯度存在。为了评估大规模水华如何影响病原体感染，将在整个水华期间对成年蜜蜂进行取样，并在水华结束时对幼虫和花粉进行取样，以量化病原体和营养物质。为了评估大规模开花如何影响疾病传播的机会，将对野豌豆和 NMBR 斑块中的总和受感染的蜜蜂和花朵密度进行量化。为了评估大规模开花和 NMBR 是否会影响免疫力，该研究员将在实验室实验中进行免疫挑战，并测量用模拟每个地点花卉资源的质量和数量的饮食喂养花粉的蜜蜂的免疫基因表达。通过解开宿主-病原体动力学的景观与分子尺度驱动因素，这项工作将提高病原体何时影响人群和社区的预测能力。该研究员将通过以下方式扩大其工作的影响：1）培训两名本科生，2）开展生物学包容性教学培训，3）与保护和农业专业人士交流结果并调查应用。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。