Collaborative Research: Community composition and disease outcomes in a multihost-parasite system

随着野生动物和人类中传染病发病率的持续上升，有关疾病生态学的研究变得更加重要。然而，我们对自然系统中病原体和寄生虫的理解往往是从从复杂的生态群落中抽象出来的研究中发展出来的，而疾病动态实际上是在这些群落中发挥作用的。最近的证据表明，生物群落中不同物种的存在/不存在和相对丰度可以极大地影响宿主-寄生虫相互作用的结果。然而，改变群落的组成可以导致疾病风险的增加或减少，并且在极少数系统中对导致这些结果的机制进行了实验研究。这项研究将在实验中调查由蜗牛、两栖动物和吸虫寄生虫组成的复杂宿主-寄生虫系统中群落组成在调节疾病结果中的作用。一系列实验将解决多宿主、多寄生虫感染阶段和非宿主竞争者的组成和相对丰度的变化如何影响寄生虫宿主的感染。这项提议将在弗吉尼亚理工大学和雷德福大学(距离弗吉尼亚理工大学25公里的本科生为主的大学)之间建立一个合作研究计划，为两所大学的学生提供更广泛的教育经验。弗吉尼亚理工大学和拉德福大学之间的合作包括合作研究项目、联合实验室会议，以及支持弗吉尼亚理工大学的研究生和两所大学的本科生研究。此外，将根据研究结果为雷德福大学的生态学和寄生虫学课程开发一个关于宿主-寄生虫相互作用的教学单元，并将向更广泛的教学界传播。

As the incidence of infectious diseases in both wildlife and human populations continues to rise, studies addressing the ecology of disease are becoming more important. Too often, though, our understanding of pathogens and parasites in natural systems develops from studies abstracted from the complex ecological communities in which disease dynamics actually play out. Recent evidence suggests that the presence/absence and relative abundance of different species in the biological community can substantially influence the outcome of host-parasite interactions. However, changing the composition of the community can result in either an increase or decrease in disease risk, and the mechanisms responsible for these outcomes have been experimentally investigated in very few systems. This research will experimentally investigate the role of community composition in modulating disease outcomes in a complex host-parasite system composed of snails, amphibians, and a trematode parasite. A series of experiments will address how infection of parasite hosts is influenced by changes in the composition and relative abundance of multiple hosts, multiple parasite infectious stages and non-host competitors.This proposal will establish a collaborative research program between the laboratories of the PIs at Virginia Tech and Radford University (a predominately undergraduate institution 25 km from Virginia Tech) that will provide broader educational experiences for the students at both institutions. The partnership between Virginia Tech and Radford University includes collaborative research projects, joint laboratory meetings, and support of graduate students at Virginia Tech and undergraduate student research at both universities. In addition, a teaching module on host-parasite interactions based on the research results will be developed for Ecology and Parasitology courses at Radford University and will be disseminated to the broader teaching community.