NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2015

本行动资助美国国家科学基金会2015年度生物学博士后研究奖学金，利用生物馆藏进行研究。该奖学金支持一项研究和培训计划，使研究员能够以高度创新的方式采用生物收集的变革性方法来应对生物学方面的重大挑战。C. Alisha Quandt的这项研究计划的标题是“与大量掠夺性海洋蜗牛消化道相关的真菌群落变异”。该奖学金的主办机构是密歇根大学（UM），赞助科学家是Timothy Y. James。对脊椎动物微生物组的研究已经发现了以前未被识别的真菌和细菌群落，这些群落不仅对它们的多细胞宿主有益，而且在某些情况下是必不可少的。然而，对与无脊椎动物相关的微生物群落的研究很少，但却为发现提供了重要的机会。该研究旨在利用现有的Conus（一种被充分研究过的掠食性海蜗牛属）标本来表征它们的真菌肠道群落及其功能特征，以确定它们是否与宿主遗传、饮食或地理分布相关。目前正在从保存的标本中收集与海洋软体动物有关的真菌群落的数据。软体动物是最大的动物门之一，具有广泛的地理分布范围，一些软体动物已经在世界各地入侵，有时具有破坏性的经济和生态影响；然而，人们对它们的微生物群落知之甚少。这项开创性的研究是通过现有的收集而成为可能的，并承诺在任何软体动物属上进行前所未有的广度和深度采样，以及第一次与软体动物相关的真菌培养独立研究。研究结果不仅有可能发现几种新的真菌物种，而且可能未被描述的谱系，并增加对与软体动物相关的真菌群落功能能力的理解，可能将Conus饮食与微生物组的功能特征联系起来。微生物群和饮食之间的联系可以解释软体动物如何能够在新入侵的栖息地茁壮成长。培训目标和职业发展活动包括获得新实验系统的技能和管理技能，包括研究和博物馆收藏管理。教育外展包括通过澳大本科生研究机会计划（UROP）计划资助的本科生，以及通过澳大的女性数学工程和科学（FEMMES）计划在课后教育活动中的四至六年级女生。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2015, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to C. Alisha Quandt is "Fungal community variation associated with the digestive tracts of a large collection of predatory, marine snails." The host institution for this fellowship is the University of Michigan (UM), and the sponsoring scientist is Timothy Y. James. Research into vertebrate microbiomes has led to the discovery of previously unidentified fungal and bacterial communities that are not only beneficial to their multicellular hosts, but in some cases, essential. Studies of microbial communities associated with invertebrates, however, are rare but offer an important opportunity for discovery. The fellowship research seeks to use existing collections of Conus, a well-studied genus of predatory marine snails, to characterize their fungal gut communities and their functional profile to determine if these are correlated with host genetics, diet, or geographical distribution. Data are being collected from preserved specimens about the fungal communities associated with marine mollusks. Mollusca, one of the largest animal phyla, can have broad geographic ranges and several mollusks have become invasive throughout the world, sometimes with devastating economic and ecological effects; yet little is known about their microbial communities. This pioneering study is made possible by the existing collection and promises a breadth and depth of sampling never before conducted on any mollusk genus as well as the first culture-independent study of fungi associated with mollusks. Results have the potential to unearth not only several new species of fungi, but possibly undescribed lineages, and increase understanding of the functional capabilities of the fungal communities associated with mollusks, possibly linking Conus diet with functional characteristics of the microbiome. A connection between microbiome and diet may explain how mollusks are able to thrive in newly invaded habitats. Training goals and career advance activities include gaining skills in new experimental systems and management skills, including both research and museum collection management. Educational outreach includes undergraduate students through funding from the UM Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) program and 4th to 6th grade girls through the Females Excelling More in Math Engineering and the Sciences (FEMMES) program at UM at after school education events.