Coral-microbial interactions as determinants of disease dynamics

许多动物和植物宿主的健康取决于其微生物组的组成。虽然宿主的健康通常与有利于病原微生物生长的环境因素有关，但动物和植物微生物组的多样性表明，竞争在决定疾病爆发的频率和严重程度方面起着重要作用。该项目使用濒危的加勒比鹿角珊瑚作为模型系统，以了解环境和微生物的相互作用如何控制白色带病（WBD）的传播，这是一种细菌性疾病，已造成近95%的加勒比鹿角珊瑚种群死亡。将使用操纵实验、实地调查和数学建模相结合的方法来确定水温、珊瑚宿主之间的微生物运动和珊瑚宿主内的微生物竞争如何影响WBD发病率。通过确定WBD的环境和微生物驱动因素，该项目将使管理人员能够（i）预测在空间和时间上易受WBD影响的热点，以及（ii）确定恢复加勒比珊瑚礁社区这些曾经突出的成员的最佳策略。这项研究将通过交叉培训珊瑚生物学，微生物遗传学，生物信息学，数学建模，计算机编程和统计学的研究生来解决重要的社会需求。该项目的结果将被整合到遗传学，生态建模和生物统计学的本科课程中，以强调定量和跨学科STEM培训对解决生物学中重要问题的重要性。最后，将创建一系列交互式网络模块，以将该项目的结果传播到学术界之外，包括东北大学海洋科学中心K-12外展计划和史密森热带研究所在巴拿马的外展计划。人们越来越认识到，构建微生物群落的过程可能会扩大到解释宿主中的疾病爆发。尽管微生物群落的复杂性，迄今为止的大多数研究都集中在解决环境，致病微生物的发生和疾病的发生之间的直接关系。然而，微生物物种的相互作用和传播对宿主疾病的出现的影响在很大程度上仍然是未知的。本项目将联合收割机与微生物遗传学和数学模型相结合，以了解环境、物种相互作用和扩散对微生物群落结构的相对影响以及珊瑚宿主中的疾病动态。本研究使用濒危的加勒比鹿角珊瑚（鹿角珊瑚）和白色带病（WBD）作为宿主-病原体系统的模型。这种曾经占主导地位的造礁珊瑚被WBD摧毁，促使其被列为濒危物种。该系统的最新研究表明，（i）细菌是WBD的原因，（ii）生活在宿主内的微生物群落可以产生抑制病原菌的抗生素化合物，（iii）温度升高促进感染并减少抗生素化合物的产生。这些发现表明，环境和宿主相关微生物物种之间的相互作用决定了微生物群落的结构和珊瑚宿主的健康。为了解开这些过程，将进行多因素传播实验，以了解温度，病原体暴露和微生物群落复杂性对疾病动态的直接和间接影响。为了确定这些结果如何扩大到天然珊瑚礁，将根据实地调查数据建立一个珊瑚微生物空间模型。这个拟合模型将阐明季节性温度变化和微生物扩散如何共同影响珊瑚疾病的爆发和珊瑚微生物群落在空间尺度上的结构。该研究将把研究与本科生的教学和培训结合起来。

The health of numerous animal and plant hosts depends on the composition of their microbiome. Although the health of hosts is often linked to environmental factors that favor the growth of pathogenic microbes, the diversity of animal and plant microbiomes suggests that competition plays an important role in determining the frequency and severity of disease outbreaks. This project uses the endangered Caribbean staghorn coral as a model system to understand how the environment and microbial interactions controls the spread of White Band Disease (WBD), a bacterial disease that has decimated nearly 95% of Caribbean staghorn coral populations. A combination of manipulative experiments, field surveys and mathematical modeling will be used to determine how water temperature, microbial movement between- and microbial competition within coral hosts influence WBD incidence. By identifying the environmental and microbial drivers of WBD, this project will allow managers to (i) predict hotspots of vulnerability to WBD in space and time, and (ii) identify optimal strategies for restoring these once prominent members of Caribbean coral reef communities. This research will address important societal needs by cross-training graduate students in coral biology, microbial genetics, bioinformatics, mathematical modeling, computer programming and statistics. Results of this project will be integrated into undergraduate courses in genetics, ecological modeling and biostatistics in order to emphasize the importance of quantitative and interdisciplinary STEM training for addressing important questions in biology. Finally, a series of interactive web modules will be created to disseminate the results of this project beyond academic circles, including to Northeastern University's Marine Science Center K-12 outreach programs and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's outreach programs in Panama.There is growing recognition that the processes that structure microbial communities may scale up to explain disease outbreaks in their hosts. Despite the complexity of microbial communities, most studies to date have focused on resolving the direct relationship between the environment, the occurrence of pathogenic microbes, and the incidence of disease. However, the effects of microbial species interactions and dispersal on the emergence of host diseases remain largely unknown. This project will combine microbial genetics and mathematical modeling to understand the relative influence of the environment, species interactions and dispersal on the structure of microbial communities and the dynamics of disease in their coral hosts. This research uses the endangered Caribbean staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) and White Band Disease (WBD) as a model host-pathogen system. This once dominant, reef-building coral was decimated by WBD, prompting its listing as an endangered species. Recent work in this system suggests that (i) bacteria are the cause of WBD, (ii) the microbial community living within the host can produce antibiotic compounds that suppress pathogenic bacteria, and (iii) temperature increase promotes infection and reduces the production of antibiotic compounds. These findings suggest that the interplay between the environment and host-associated microbial species determines the structure of the microbial community and the health of the coral host. To disentangle these processes, a multi-factorial transmission experiment will be conducted to understand the direct and indirect effects of temperature, pathogen exposure, and microbial community complexity on disease dynamics. To determine how these results scale up to natural coral reefs, a spatial coral-microbial model will be fitted to field survey data. This fitted model will elucidate how seasonal temperature variation and microbial dispersal jointly influence coral disease outbreaks and the structure of coral-microbial communities across spatial scales. The proposed research will integrate research with teaching and training of undergraduate students.