Collaborative Research: The interplay between host diet, immunity, reproduction, and the microbiome across an anthropogenic-disturbed landscape

合作研究：在人为干扰的景观中，宿主饮食、免疫、繁殖和微生物组之间的相互作用

• 批准号: 1752765
• 负责人: Dale DeNardo
• 金额: $ 20.19万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-10-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1752765&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; interplay; between; host

It has recently become evident that microbes within the digestive tract of an animal are not only important for digestion but also influence overall health. An animal lives with trillions of microorganisms in its body, yet the implications of having most of these microorganisms are unknown. What is known thus far is focused primarily on the importance of microorganisms for digestion. However, current work suggests that an animal's microbes have effects that extend far beyond the gut, impacting the immune system and even stress. This project seeks to understand the importance of these microorganisms for health and survival in free-living populations of endangered iguanas that are exposed to changing and unnatural diets via ecotourism. The project will test how changing microbial communities and key physiological parameters relate to reproduction and survival in natural populations. Additionally, in the laboratory the researchers will experimentally test how changes in diet, stress, and microbes affect health and physiology in order to understand what is causing the observed changes in wild iguanas. Connecting physiological and microbial changes with animal population fluctuations in nature will be an innovative step forward. Finally, understanding both the occurrence and direction of these interactions will provide important insights into the effects of human-induced diet shifts on wildlife and much needed biological knowledge regarding threatened species.Many recent studies have identified significant connections between the microbiome and host health in model systems. However, mechanistic links between the microbiome and physiological functions that are key to health and survival remain mostly unexplored. Furthermore, given that evolutionary history is one of the primary determinants of microbiome composition, the lack of taxonomic breadth severely restricts understanding of the physiological link between host habitat, diet, and immunity with microbiome composition and metagenomic function. There is also a paucity of research investigating microbial communities and health-related metrics within free-living animals. Thus, current knowledge of these relationships lacks critical ecological relevance and an understanding of the impact of environmental changes on endo-microbial communities. To address these current knowledge gaps, the project will study iguanas in both natural and captive settings, in order to test relationships among ecoimmune indices, anthropogenic-based diet changes, and the microbiome across a fragmented, insular landscape in The Bahamas. In the laboratory, the principal investigators will perform ecologically-relevant experimental manipulations in captive iguanas to test directional relationships in wild populations. The principal investigators will also investigate the stability of these associations over time in conjunction with a long-term mark recapture data set (37+ years) to estimate the influence of ecoimmunological, oxidative, and microbiome indices on reproductive output and survival across different populations exposed to variable human influence.This award was co-funded by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, the Division of Environmental Biology, and the Rules of Life Venture Fund within The Directorate for Biological Sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

最近的研究表明，动物消化道内的微生物不仅对消化很重要，而且还影响整体健康。动物体内生活着数万亿微生物，但其中大部分微生物的影响尚不清楚。迄今为止，我们所知道的主要集中在微生物对消化的重要性上。然而，目前的研究表明，动物微生物的影响远远超出肠道范围，影响免疫系统甚至压力。该项目旨在了解这些微生物对自由生活的濒危鬣蜥种群的健康和生存的重要性，这些鬣蜥通过生态旅游接触到不断变化的和不自然的饮食。该项目将测试不断变化的微生物群落和关键生理参数如何与自然种群的繁殖和生存相关。此外，在实验室中，研究人员将通过实验测试饮食、压力和微生物的变化如何影响健康和生理，以了解是什么导致了野生鬣蜥观察到的变化。将生理和微生物变化与自然界动物种群波动联系起来将是一个创新的进步。最后，了解这些相互作用的发生和方向将为了解人类引起的饮食变化对野生动物的影响提供重要见解，并提供有关受威胁物种的急需的生物学知识。最近的许多研究已经确定了模型系统中微生物组与宿主健康之间的重要联系。然而，微生物组和对健康和生存至关重要的生理功能之间的机制联系仍未被探索。此外，鉴于进化史是微生物组组成的主要决定因素之一，分类学广度的缺乏严重限制了对宿主栖息地、饮食和免疫与微生物组组成和宏基因组功能之间的生理联系的理解。调查自由生活动物的微生物群落和健康相关指标的研究也很少。因此，目前对这些关系的了解缺乏关键的生态相关性，也缺乏对环境变化对内微生物群落影响的理解。为了解决当前的知识差距，该项目将研究自然和圈养环境中的鬣蜥，以测试生态免疫指数、人为饮食变化以及巴哈马群岛支离破碎的岛屿景观中微生物组之间的关系。在实验室中，主要研究人员将对圈养鬣蜥进行生态相关的实验操作，以测试野生种群的方向关系。主要研究人员还将结合长期标记重新捕获数据集（37年以上）调查这些关联随着时间的推移的稳定性，以估计生态免疫、氧化和微生物组指数对受到不同人类影响的不同人群的生殖输出和生存的影响。该奖项由综合有机系统司、环境生物学司和生命法则风险投资公司共同资助 生物科学理事会内的基金。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。