Genetic Tradeoffs in Resistance to Natural Enemies

抵抗天敌的基因权衡

• 批准号: 0128999
• 负责人: Michal Polak
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Cincinnati Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-04-15 至 2004-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0128999&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Genetic; Tradeoffs; Resistance; Natural; Enemies

In theory, tradeoffs between host resistance against parasites and host fitness traits play a key role in the maintenance of genetic variation and hence in determining the evolutionary potential of resistance. The proposed research encompasses a comprehensive empirical study of tradeoffs focusing on host life history and ecological traits, and will utilize a Drosophila-mite system as a model to address several key hypotheses. These hypotheses are that strains selected in the laboratory to be more resistant to parasitic mites will suffer, in the absence of the parasites, significant reductions in egg hatch success, ability to compete for limiting resources, survivorship and fecundity, and in defensive capabilities against other natural enemies. These enemies include an invertebrate predator and an insect-pathogenic bacterium. Another major emphasis will be to test for the presence of costs of resistance under variable environmental conditions to which the host organism is known to be exposed in nature. Many of the elements that mediate the Drosophila-parasitic mite association are seen in vertebrate host-ectoparasite interactions, and in associations between insect prey and their predators. Thus the results of the proposed work should provide data of importance toward understanding the mechanisms and evolution of resistance across a broad array of animal species. The data generated are also expected to help define criteria for choosing appropriate natural enemies, and especially mixtures of natural enemies, for effective biological pest control. The research should therefore help to reduce dependency on chemical pesticide and herbicide usage, and hence promote environmental health. Our general knowledge of multispecies associations and their ecological complexities should also be advanced. The research effort will contribute to the training of both undergraduate and graduate students, and it should be of practical and societal value as it is expected to help develop novel methods of sustainable biological control.

理论上，宿主对寄生虫的抗性和宿主适合度性状之间的权衡在维持遗传变异中起着关键作用，因此在决定抗性的进化潜力中起着关键作用。拟议中的研究包括一个全面的实证研究，侧重于主机的生活史和生态特征的权衡，并将利用果蝇螨系统作为模型来解决几个关键的假设。这些假设是，在实验室中选择的菌株对寄生螨更具抵抗力，在没有寄生虫的情况下，卵孵化成功率显着降低，竞争有限资源的能力，存活率和繁殖力，以及对其他天敌的防御能力。这些敌人包括一种无脊椎动物捕食者和一种昆虫病原细菌。另一个主要重点将是测试在已知宿主生物体在自然界中暴露的可变环境条件下是否存在抗性成本。许多介导果蝇-寄生螨关联的元素见于脊椎动物宿主-外寄生虫相互作用以及昆虫猎物与其捕食者之间的关联。因此，拟议工作的结果应提供重要数据，以了解广泛的动物物种的耐药性机制和进化。所产生的数据也有望帮助确定选择适当的天敌，特别是天敌的混合物，有效的生物害虫控制的标准。因此，研究应有助于减少对化学杀虫剂和除草剂使用的依赖，从而促进环境健康。我们对多物种协会及其生态复杂性的一般知识也应该得到提高。这项研究工作将有助于培养本科生和研究生，它应该是实用和社会价值，因为它有望帮助开发新的可持续生物控制方法。