Collaborative Research: The Causes and Consequences of Trade-offs in Model Populations

合作研究：模型群体权衡的原因和后果

• 批准号: 0129942
• 负责人: Brendan Bohannan
• 金额: $ 23.5万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 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 2005-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0129942&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Causes; Consequences; Trade

Organisms have developed numerous mechanisms for resisting predators and pathogens. These mechanisms are generally thought to incur a "cost" to the organism, such that predator resistant organisms are inferior competitors (relative to sensitive organisms) in the absence of predators. However, the causes and consequences of this tradeoff have proven difficult to examine in most experimental systems. Escherichia coli and its viral predators (bacteriophage) are ideal model organisms with which to study this tradeoff, because they are easy to propagate, they grow rapidly and because there is an abundance of background literature on their biology. Experiments will be performed that directly examine the genetic and physiological causes of the tradeoff between competitive ability and bacteriophage resistance in E.coli, and the effects of this tradeoff on populations and communities over short (ecological) and long (evolutionary) time scales under specific environmental conditions.The premise that there is a tradeoff between resistance and competitive ability forms the basis for numerous hypotheses on the origin of biodiversity and the interaction of predators or pathogens and their prey. Understanding this tradeoff will have widespread value in both pure and applied sciences, including increasing the accuracy of predictions of climate change effects on biodiversity, the impact of foreign species introduction, and the evolution of virulence in human pathogens.

生物体已经发展了许多抵抗捕食者和病原体的机制。这些机制通常被认为会给生物体带来“成本”，因此在没有捕食者的情况下，抵抗捕食者的生物体是劣势竞争者（相对于敏感生物体）。 然而，在大多数实验系统中，这种权衡的原因和后果已被证明难以检查。大肠杆菌和它的病毒捕食者（噬菌体）是研究这种权衡的理想模式生物，因为它们易于繁殖，生长迅速，而且有大量关于它们生物学的背景文献。将进行实验，直接检查大肠杆菌中竞争能力和噬菌体抗性之间权衡的遗传和生理原因，以及这种权衡对人口和社区的影响，（生态）和长期（进化）在特定环境条件下的时间尺度。在抵抗力和竞争能力之间存在权衡的前提形成了许多关于起源的假设的基础生物多样性以及捕食者或病原体与猎物之间的相互作用。 理解这种权衡将在纯科学和应用科学中具有广泛的价值，包括提高气候变化对生物多样性影响的预测准确性，外来物种引入的影响，以及人类病原体毒力的演变。