NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Host-Microbiome Ecology

本行动资助NSF 2019年度生物学博士后研究奖学金，利用生物馆藏进行研究。该奖学金支持研究和培训将以创新的方式利用生物收集的研究员。该项目旨在了解宿主相关微生物（生活在另一生物体内的微生物）的历史意义。这些包括细菌、原生动物和真菌。通过使用博物馆收藏的两栖动物，研究员将在美国的两个地区研究宿主相关的肠道微生物。两栖动物博物馆的标本在这方面特别有用，因为这些标本的保存方式。这些标本保存了液体，在收集时提供了宿主相关微生物的快照。这项工作将对宿主相关微生物的生态学和进化产生重要影响。此外，拟议的工作将涉及来自南达科他州保留地的美国原住民学生的参与，以扩大这一代表性不足的群体的科学兴趣和职业。据推测，肠道微生物群落的多样性和功能在两栖动物群落内部和之间会随时空梯度而变化。这种变化也可能先于相关宿主的疾病相关衰退，例如两栖动物的壶菌病。这些假设将通过利用最近开发的分离和纯化降解DNA的技术来检验。霰弹枪宏基因组测序将用于生成宿主相关的肠道宏基因组数据。基于序列的分类和功能分析将在高性能计算资源上使用各种生物信息学和机器学习软件完成。通过利用博物馆标本及其相关的地方信息，该研究员还将解释自19世纪80年代至今，美国中西部和东北部地区不同土地利用和土地覆盖（LULC）对两栖动物宿主相关微生物群的影响。统计混合效应模型将用于评估宿主相关微生物宏基因组的变化，并将包括公开可用的LULC数据集的整合。因此，该项目将进一步培训地理信息系统研究员，以便将其纳入微生物生态学研究，并促进指导来自代表性不足群体的学生利用博物馆藏品来回答有关微生物生态学和进化的问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. This project aims to understand the historical significance of host-associated microbes (microbes that live inside another organism. These include bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. By using museum collections of amphibians, the fellow will examine host-associated gut microbes over time in two regions of the United States. Amphibian museum specimens are especially useful in this regard because of the way in which these specimens were preserved. These specimens preserved fluids, which provide a snapshot of the host-associated microbes at the time of collection. This work will have important impacts on host-associated microbe ecology and evolution. Additionally, the proposed work will involve the participation of Native American students from reservations in South Dakota to expand scientific interest and careers among this underrepresented group.It is hypothesized that microbial gut communities will vary in diversity and function both within and between amphibian assemblages over spatiotemporal gradients. Such changes may also precede disease related declines of the associated hosts, such as chytridiomycosis in amphibians. These hypotheses will be tested by utilizing recently developed techniques for isolation and purification of degraded DNA. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing will be used for generating host-associated gut metagenome data. Sequence-based taxonomic and functional analysis will be completed using a variety of bioinformatics and machine-learning software on high-performance computing resources. By utilizing museum specimens and their associated locality information, the fellow will also explicate changes in host-associated microbiomes of amphibian assemblages in response to differential land-use and land-cover (LULC) in the Midwest and Northeast United States from the 1880s to present. Statistical mixed-effects models will be implemented for evaluating changes in host-associated microbial metagenomes and will include the integration of publicly available LULC datasets. The project will therefore further the training of the fellow in GIS for integration into microbial ecology research, and also promote the mentoring of students from underrepresented groups in using museum collections for answering questions pertaining to microbial ecology and evolution.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.