NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

授予本杰明·帕克博士的博士后研究奖学金由生物科学局和国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室共同支持。在为期24个月的奖学金期间，帕克博士将在英国牛津大学的H·查尔斯·戈德弗雷教授的赞助下，参与一个名为“昆虫-共生菌协会结果的变异：宿主基因的作用”的项目。动物拥有复杂的微生物群落，这些微生物在健康和疾病中发挥着重要作用。近年来，科学家们已经确定，不同个体体内的微生物类型有很大的差异，以及这些微生物对宿主的影响。这项研究的目标是使用一个简单的模型系统来了解在动物-微生物相互作用中产生变化的生态和进化力量。豌豆蚜虫体内有一种细菌，可以保护它们免受自然真菌病原体的侵袭。最近的研究表明，与其他种类相比，细菌能更好地保护一些蚜虫免受这种真菌的侵害。该项目将结合下一代测序和免疫学技术，以确定宿主在塑造它们与有益细菌的联系方面所发挥的作用，以及为什么宿主在这些联系中有所不同。通过了解这个简单的动物-微生物系统，这项工作将有助于更广泛地理解生态和进化如何在更复杂的个体中塑造与微生物的联系。此外，蚜虫是入侵的农业害虫，真菌病原体被用作控制蚜虫种群的一种方法。发展对作物病虫害如何抵抗生防剂的理解对农业管理很重要。该项目还将开发一系列课堂练习，利用蚜虫让学生接触自然历史。这些练习将让学生建立和监测蚜虫的自然群落，这在美国各地很常见，并将探索病原体和捕食者如何影响种群。该奖项为美国科学家提供了一个与外国科学家合作并利用国外独特的设施、专业知识和实验条件的独特机会。

This Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award to Dr. Benjamin Parker is supported by both the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation. During the 24-month fellowship, Dr. Parker will work on a project titled, "Variation in the outcome of an insect-symbiont association: a role for host genotype" under the sponsorship of Professor H Charles Godfray at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Animals host complex communities of microbes that play an important role in health and disease. In recent years, scientists have determined that there is a great deal of variation in the types of microbes that inhabit different individuals, and in what effect these microbes have on their hosts. The goal of this research is to use a simple model system to learn about the ecological and evolutionary forces generating variation in animal-microbe interactions. Pea aphids host a species of bacteria that protects them from a natural fungal pathogen. Recent work has shown that some aphids are better protected from this fungus by bacteria than others. This project will combine next-generation sequencing and immunological techniques to determine the role that hosts are playing in shaping their associations with beneficial bacteria, and why hosts differ in these associations. By learning about this simple animal-microbe system, this work will contribute to a broader understanding of how ecology and evolution shape associations with microbes in more complex individuals. In addition, aphids are invasive agricultural pests, and fungal pathogens are used as a way of controlling aphid populations. Developing an understanding of how crop pests resist biocontrol agents is important to agricultural management. This project will also involve the development of a series of classroom exercises that use aphids to expose students to natural history. The exercises will have students set up and monitor natural communities of aphids, which are found commonly throughout the US, and will explore how pathogens and predators influence populations. This award provides a unique opportunity for a US scientist to collaborate with foreign scientists, and utilize the unique facilities, expertise and experimental conditions available abroad.