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

许多单独的寄主生物，包括人类，同时被多个病原体物种共同感染。共感染病原菌的多样性(数量和特性)既可以调节病原体在宿主之间的传播，也可以调节病原体对宿主的影响。尽管如此，人们对控制病原体多样性的过程知之甚少。这项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。这项研究由五种牧草病毒病原体(谷类和大麦黄矮病病毒)组成的模型系统组成。这种方法将允许研究病原体物种本身、传播它们的昆虫媒介、它们的植物寄主、气候条件和空间过程在控制包括多个病原体物种的系统动态中的相互作用。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合性的影响。这项研究将具有科学意义和社会意义。这项工作将促进对多病原体动力学的理解--这是发展对传染病生态学的全面理解的关键一步。它将包括代表人数不足的群体的参与、社区外联以及通过公开演讲和同行评议的期刊传播成果。调查人员将把这项研究与K-12和大学层面的教育结合起来。病原菌是农作物最重要的经济病毒之一，因此这项研究可能对农业有好处。此外，这些病原体为媒介传播的通用型病原体提供了一个实验上易于处理的模型，这种病原体是人类、农作物和其他物种的主要新兴病原体类型。

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.