Collaborative Research: The community ecology of viral pathogens - Causes and consequences of coinfection in hosts and vectors

包括人类在内的许多个体宿主生物同时被多种病原体共同感染。共感染病原体的多样性（数量和身份）可以调节宿主之间的病原体传播和病原体对宿主的影响。尽管如此，我们对控制病原体多样性的过程知之甚少。本研究将结合田间试验和数学模型来研究病原菌多样性的原因和后果。该研究包括一个模型系统的五个病毒病原体的草（谷物和大麦黄矮病毒）。这种方法将允许调查的病原体物种本身的相互作用的作用，传播它们的昆虫载体，它们的植物宿主，气候条件和空间过程中控制的动态系统，包括多个病原体物种。此外，它将阐明病原体相互作用的机制，并评估这些相互作用对病原体传播和宿主适应性的影响。 这项研究将具有科学和社会意义。这项工作将促进对多病原体动力学的理解-这是全面了解传染病生态学的关键一步。它将包括代表性不足的群体的参与、社区外联以及通过公开演讲和同行评审期刊传播成果。研究人员将把这项研究与K-12和大学教育结合起来。病原体是作物上最重要的经济病毒之一，因此这项研究可能对农业有益。此外，这些病原体为媒介传播的一般病原体提供了实验上易于处理的模型，媒介传播的一般病原体是人类、作物和其他物种的新兴病原体的主要类型。

Many individual host organisms, including humans, are simultaneously coinfected by multiple pathogen species. The diversity (number and identity) of coinfecting pathogens can modulate both pathogen transmission among hosts and pathogen impacts on hosts. Nonetheless, little is known about the processes that govern pathogen diversity. This research will integrate field experiments and mathematical models to study the causes and consequences of pathogen diversity. The study consists of a model system of five viral pathogens of grasses (the cereal and barley yellow dwarf viruses). This approach will allow the investigation of the interacting roles of the pathogen species themselves, the insect vectors that transmit them, their plant hosts, climate conditions, and spatial processes in controlling the dynamics of systems that include multiple pathogen species. Further, it will elucidate the mechanisms by which pathogens interact, and evaluate the consequences of these interactions for pathogen transmission and host fitness. This study will be of both scientific and societal significance. The work will advance the understanding multi-pathogen dynamics - a key step towards developing a comprehensive understanding of the ecology of infectious disease. It will include participation of under-represented groups, community outreach, and dissemination of results through both public talks and peer-reviewed journals. The investigators will integrate this research with education at both K-12 and university levels. The pathogens are among the most economically important viruses of crops, so this study may have benefits for agriculture. Moreover, these pathogens provide an experimentally tractable model for vector-transmitted generalist pathogens, the dominant type of emerging pathogen of humans, crops, and other species.