NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

2013 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1306489
• 负责人: Alex Van Dam
• 金额: $ 14万
• 依托单位: VanDam Alex R
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-10-01 至 2015-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1306489&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This Postdoctoral Research Fellowship award to Dr. Alex R. Van Dam 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. Van Dam will work on a project titled, "New insights into insect host-plant generalization: population transcriptome sequencing of Porphyrophora spp." under the sponsorship of Dr. Uffe H. Mortensen at the Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark.Many of the worlds' crops are attacked by parasitic sap sucking insects, eg. aphids and scale insects, which lead to crop losses and threaten food security. Among these insects, there is a wide variation in the number of plants they can attack. This project aims to describe genes responsible for different scale insects' host plant preferences by comparing the genes found in generalists (insects that feed on many different plant species) to specialists (insects that feed on only a few or single plant species). Besides identifying genes responsible for host plant preference in scale insects, this project also aims to understand how host plant preference genes are maintained across populations, and if this has an affect on the number of plant species they can feed on. Specifically the project aims to test if large populations are able to better maintain genes that lead to greater host plant breadth than small populations. A practical application of this research is utility in biological control of invasive weeds, and control of agricultural pests. This will help in broader societal goals such as reduction of pesticide use and sustainable farming. Support of this research will lead to discoveries that will make for a more profitable agriculture industry. Additionally practical bioinformatics tutorials will be developed that are open-access and web-based resources aimed at graduate students and undergraduates. Open-access tutorials on bioinformatics will benefit undergraduate and graduate student career development. 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.

这项博士后研究奖学金授予Alex R. Van Dam博士，由美国国家科学基金会生物科学理事会和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，Van Dam博士将在丹麦技术大学系统生物系Uffe H. Mortensen博士的赞助下，从事一个名为“昆虫寄主-植物概化的新见解：Porphyrophora spp的种群转录组测序”的项目。世界上许多农作物都受到寄生的吸液昆虫的侵袭。蚜虫和蚧虫，它们导致作物损失并威胁粮食安全。在这些昆虫中，它们能攻击的植物数量差别很大。该项目旨在通过比较多面手（以多种不同植物为食的昆虫）和专门手（仅以少数或单一植物为食的昆虫）中发现的基因，来描述对不同蚧虫寄主植物偏好负责的基因。除了确定蚧虫对寄主植物偏好的基因外，该项目还旨在了解寄主植物偏好基因是如何在种群中维持的，以及这是否会影响它们可以捕食的植物物种的数量。具体来说，该项目旨在测试大种群是否能够比小种群更好地维持导致更大寄主植物宽度的基因。本研究的实际应用是对入侵杂草的生物防治和农业害虫的防治。这将有助于实现更广泛的社会目标，如减少农药使用和可持续农业。对这项研究的支持将带来新的发现，这将使农业更加有利可图。此外，实用的生物信息学教程将开发为面向研究生和本科生的开放获取和基于网络的资源。开放获取的生物信息学教程将有利于本科生和研究生的职业发展。该奖项为美国科学家提供了一个与外国科学家合作的独特机会，并利用国外独特的设施、专业知识和实验条件。