Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Microbial seed banks: processes and patterns of dormancy-driven biodiversity

维度：合作研究：微生物种子库：休眠驱动的生物多样性的过程和模式

• 批准号: 1442246
• 负责人: Jay Lennon
• 金额: $ 132.15万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2020-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1442246&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dimensions; Collaborative; Research; Microbial; seed

Microorganisms are the most abundant and diverse taxa on Earth. Despite their ecological and economic importance, it is unclear what maintains the diversity of microbial communities, what adaptive traits allow microorganisms to contend with novel or changing environments, and what accounts for their exceptional spatial distributions. Recent studies suggest that the ability to enter a reversible state of reduced metabolic activity or dormancy ('seed bank') may be central to answering these questions. This project focuses on the seed bank dynamics of microbial communities. In addition to elucidating key processes and feedbacks that contribute to the maintenance of microbial diversity, the project has practical implications for understanding challenges associated with antibiotic resistance, pest outbreaks, and the restoration of managed ecosystems. Broader impacts of the project include the development of a capstone-research experience for undergraduate students at a Principally Undergraduate Institution, a summer research program for high school students from under-represented groups, an open-source individual-based modeling software package, and public outreach via engagement with science museums. The overarching goals of this research project are to identify the key ecological and evolutionary processes that generate and maintain microbial biodiversity, and to understand how this diversity in turn influences ecosystem processes. These goals will be addressed by focusing on how and why dormancy varies among microbes as a result of life history trade-offs. Combined with novel insight into dormancy-driven communication networks, the research will determine how seed bank dynamics affect the function and geographic patterns of microbial diversity. Three major objectives pertaining to dormancy and the diversity of microbial communities will be addressed: 1) Test for life history tradeoffs between dormancy and physiological and genomic characteristics by comparing survivorship during prolonged dormancy across a phylogenetically diverse collection of soil bacteria using a traits-based approach, 2) Test predictions regarding the nature of dormancy as a cell-cell communicated response that affects pathogen suppression, plant-soil feedbacks, and ecosystem processes using signaling molecules to directly manipulate microbial seed banks, 3) Develop and test theoretical predictions regarding the contribution of seed banks to geographic patterns of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity using communities of soil bacteria from systems with contrasting disturbance histories.

微生物是地球上最丰富多样的类群。尽管它们在生态和经济上具有重要意义，但目前还不清楚是什么维持了微生物群落的多样性，是什么适应性特征使微生物能够应对新的或不断变化的环境，以及是什么导致了它们特殊的空间分布。最近的研究表明，进入代谢活动减少或休眠（“种子库”）的可逆状态的能力可能是回答这些问题的核心。本项目的重点是微生物群落的种子库动态。除了阐明有助于维持微生物多样性的关键过程和反馈外，该项目还对理解与抗生素耐药性、害虫爆发和恢复受管理的生态系统相关的挑战具有实际意义。该项目的更广泛的影响包括在主要本科院校为本科生开发顶点研究体验，为来自代表性不足群体的高中生提供暑期研究计划，开源基于个人的建模软件包，以及通过与科学博物馆的接触进行公众宣传。该研究项目的总体目标是确定产生和维持微生物生物多样性的关键生态和进化过程，并了解这种多样性如何反过来影响生态系统过程。这些目标将通过关注休眠如何以及为什么在微生物之间变化作为生活史权衡的结果来解决。结合对休眠驱动的通信网络的新见解，该研究将确定种子库动态如何影响微生物多样性的功能和地理模式。将讨论与休眠和微生物群落多样性有关的三个主要目标：1）通过使用基于性状的方法比较土壤细菌在长时间休眠期间的存活率，测试休眠与生理和基因组特征之间的生活史权衡，2）测试关于休眠的性质的预测，作为影响病原体抑制、植物-土壤反馈的细胞-细胞通信响应，和生态系统过程中使用信号分子直接操纵微生物种子库，3）开发和测试理论预测种子库的贡献的地理格局的分类和系统发育多样性使用社区的土壤细菌系统与对比的干扰历史。