Collaborative Research: OPUS: Anther-smut as a Disease Model - Traversing Disciplines

这个OPUS项目将撰写一本书，综合美国国家科学基金会20年来资助的关于一种模式寄主-病原体系统的研究：由真菌病原体Microbotryum引起的花药黑穗病。这项研究导致了许多生物学领域的发现，包括人类疾病的重要方面，如性传播疾病的影响，决定新疾病出现的因素，以及这些因素如何与基因组水平上的变化相互作用。该项目将为大学和中学教师提供在线实验练习和相关背景材料，以便将该系统用于疾病生物学原理的教学。病原体直接或通过破坏农作物、家畜和自然生态系统，给人类造成了巨大的痛苦。通过制作一本高度可读性、娱乐性和信息量大的书，研究人员将展示花药黑穗病系统如何导致跨越广泛学科的创新发现。许多本科生和研究生通过使用这个系统的实践研究进入了疾病生物学，这本书将促进对一些对人类健康和福利最严重的威胁的核心原理的进一步研究。

This OPUS project will produce a book synthesizing 20 years of NSF funded research on a model host-pathogen system: anther-smut disease caused by the fungal pathogen Microbotryum. This research has led to discoveries that have informed numerous areas of biology, including important aspects of human disease such as the impact of sexually transmitted diseases, the forces determining emergence of new diseases, and how these forces interact with changes at the genomic level. This project will provide college and high-school teachers online lab exercises and related background materials for using this system in teaching the principles of disease biology. Pathogens cause huge amounts of human misery, either directly or through the destruction of crops, domestic animals, and natural ecosystems. By producing a highly readable, entertaining, and informative book the investigators will show how the anther smut system has led to innovative discoveries that have traversed a wide range of disciplines. Numerous undergraduates and many graduate students have entered disease biology through hands-on research with this system, and this book will stimulate further research on principles central to some of the most severe threats to human health and welfare.