OPUS: Synthesizing Defensive Symbiosis from a Microbial Perspective

OPUS：从微生物角度综合防御共生

• 批准号: 1354078
• 负责人: Keith Clay
• 金额: $ 14.53万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-02-01 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1354078&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: OPUS; Synthesizing; Defensive; Symbiosis; Microbial

Essentially all plants and animals are colonized by a diverse array of symbiotic microorganisms. For example, 90% of the cells in the human body are bacteria. Some microorganisms may be pathogens that cause disease or death of their hosts while others, such as gut bacteria of animals, may be essential for their nutrition and survival. A growing body of literature suggests that a number of symbiotic microorganisms play a defensive role, protecting their hosts against natural enemies such as parasites, pathogens and herbivores. The goal of this project is to review and synthesize the results of past studies to gain new insights into the underlying mechanisms and ecological consequences of defensive symbiosis. Past research leading to this goal has focused on two distinct groups of defensive symbionts: toxic alkaloid-producing fungal symbionts of grasses that make host plants poisonous to grazing animals and bacterial symbionts of ticks that may exclude pathogens or reduce their transmission. These interactions can provide a strong advantage to hosts, leading to an increase in the prevalence of defensive symbiosis. The major product of this project will be a book on defensive symbiosis that synthesizes previous research in relation to broader areas of research in ecology, microbiology and plant and animal health, and that highlights important areas for future research. A second product will be an open-access database from a 13-year experiment manipulating defensive symbiosis in experimental grasslands. Defensive symbiosis has significant impacts on our economy, the environment and human health. For example, toxin-producing fungal symbionts of grasses are a serious problem for grazing livestock but provide effective biocontrol against pests in turfgrass systems. Likewise, many arthropods host bacterial symbionts that inhibit pathogen infection or transmission, including important human pathogens, such as the dengue fever virus. In humans, altering our normal microbiota can lead to a number of health problems including disease. In sum, key species in many ecosystems are characterized by defensive symbiosis. The resulting book will provide a widely accessible and comprehensive body of past results, improving our understanding of defensive symbiosis and informing future applications of these interactions. The database will provide research opportunities for students and other scientists.

基本上，所有的植物和动物都是由各种各样的共生微生物定植的。例如，人体90%的细胞都是细菌。有些微生物可能是导致宿主疾病或死亡的病原体，而其他微生物，如动物的肠道细菌，可能对宿主的营养和生存至关重要。越来越多的文献表明，许多共生微生物起着防御作用，保护它们的宿主免受寄生虫、病原体和食草动物等天敌的侵害。本项目的目的是回顾和综合过去的研究结果，以获得新的见解，防御共生的潜在机制和生态后果。过去导致这一目标的研究主要集中在两种不同的防御性共生体上：一种是产生有毒生物碱的草类真菌共生体，它使宿主植物对食草动物有毒；另一种是蜱类细菌共生体，它可以排除病原体或减少病原体的传播。这些相互作用可以为宿主提供强大的优势，导致防御性共生的普遍增加。该项目的主要成果将是一本关于防御性共生的书，它综合了生态学、微生物学和动植物健康等更广泛研究领域的先前研究，并突出了未来研究的重要领域。第二个产品将是一个开放获取的数据库，该数据库来自一个为期13年的实验，该实验在实验草原上操纵防御性共生。防御性共生对我们的经济、环境和人类健康有重大影响。例如，草的产毒真菌共生体对放牧牲畜来说是一个严重的问题，但在草坪草系统中对害虫提供了有效的生物防治。同样，许多节肢动物宿主的细菌共生体可以抑制病原体的感染或传播，包括重要的人类病原体，如登革热病毒。在人类中，改变我们正常的微生物群会导致许多健康问题，包括疾病。总之，许多生态系统中的关键物种都具有防御性共生的特征。由此产生的书将提供一个广泛访问和全面的过去的结果体，提高我们对防御共生的理解，并告知这些相互作用的未来应用。该数据库将为学生和其他科学家提供研究机会。