DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Functional Genetics and Parasite Community Ecology in a Keystone Species

野生动物面临着来自新出现的病原体的日益增长的威胁，其中许多病原体也会导致人类患病。遗传多样性在缓冲种群免受寄生虫和病原体影响方面发挥着核心作用。能够分离与疾病易感性直接相关的基因并了解这些基因是如何进化的，对于设计成功和具有成本效益的保护计划非常重要。在野生动物中，绝大多数这样的研究都集中在单一病原体和一两个经过充分研究的免疫系统基因之间的关系上。这个项目超越了单一病原体单基因的方法，调查了六个免疫系统基因的多样性与整个黑尾草原犬寄生虫群落之间的关系。这项研究还将对短草草原长期生态研究场地的黑尾草原犬寄生虫进行首次全面调查，并将确定黑尾草原犬是否为西尼罗河病毒的宿主。草原犬是北美草原的重要组成部分，但在整个草原范围内一直在下降，主要是因为引入的病原体鼠疫耶尔森氏菌会导致鼠疫。鉴于草原土拨鼠的社会行为，它们是研究鼠疫等疾病抵抗力传播和进化的极好模型。除了增进对抗病能力的了解外，该项目还将为研究人员和管理人员提供重要信息，并为一名研究生和50多名本科生提供实验室和实地研究方法方面的培训。

Wildlife face ever-increasing threats from emerging pathogens, many of which also cause disease in humans. Genetic diversity plays a central role in buffering populations against the effects of parasites and pathogens. The ability to isolate genes related directly to disease susceptibility and understanding how those genes evolve is important for designing successful and cost-effective conservation programs. The vast majority of such studies in wildlife have focused on the relationship between a single pathogen and one or two well-studied immune system genes. This project goes beyond the single-pathogen single-gene approach by investigating the relationship between diversity in six immune system genes and the entire parasite community of black-tailed prairie dogs. This research will also provide the first comprehensive survey of black-tailed prairie dog parasites on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research site, and will determine if black-tailed prairie dogs are a host for West Nile virus. Prairie dogs are an important component of North American grasslands, but have declined throughout their range, primarily because of the introduced pathogen Yersinia pestis, which causes plague. Given the social behavior of prairie dogs, they are an excellent model for studying transmission and evolution of resistance for disease like plague. In addition to advancing the understanding of disease resistance, this project will generate important information for researchers and managers, and provide one graduate student and over 50 undergraduate students with training in laboratory and field research methods.