US-China Collab: Lessons from the past: synthesizing drivers of host persistence across a pathogen invasion gradient

病原体入侵新的地区导致了大范围的种群下降，并导致一些物种灭绝。然而，在寄主物种最初从疾病中衰落后，还不清楚一些寄主如何与病原体共存，特别是当病原体是致命的时候。了解宿主-病原体共存的机制可以提供对促进健康宿主群体的途径的洞察，包括疾病管理策略和治疗。这个全球项目是美国和中国科学家的合作项目，将研究蝙蝠如何在一种导致白鼻症的致命真菌病原体中生存下来。这项工作将探索类似的共存策略是否在蝙蝠身上反复出现，因为在过去的几千年里，这种疾病从亚洲传播到欧洲，然后传播到北美。该项目还包括对野生动物疾病研究人员和利益攸关方进行沟通培训，与州和地方资源管理人员合作制定疾病管理战略，以及建立国际网络以促进跨境野生动物保护。研究疾病动态和种群沿入侵梯度的影响有助于了解影响种群和物种群落的宿主-病原体相互作用。这个项目将利用实地研究、实验室实验和数学模型来解决四个主要目标：(1)量化接触网络和沿着病原体入侵梯度的传播；(2)确定环境因素的作用和选择对宿主-病原体动态的影响；(3)检查宿主抗性、耐受性和病原体毒力在流行和流行地区种群持续存在中的作用；以及(4)利用人口学研究和古基因组学确定流行地区疾病对当前和历史人口的影响。为了达到这些目标，该项目将利用一个跨学科的国际团队来发展对宿主与毒力病原体的持久性的机械性理解。总而言之，这项工作对减少多宿主系统中新出现的传染病的后果具有广泛的影响。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The invasion of pathogens into new regions has caused widespread population declines and driven some species to extinction. However, after host species initially decline from disease, it is unclear how some hosts can coexist with pathogens, particularly when the pathogens are lethal. Understanding the mechanisms of host-pathogen coexistence can provide insight into pathways that promote healthy host populations, including disease management strategies and treatments. This global project is a collaboration between U.S. and Chinese scientists and will examine how bats survive with a deadly fungal pathogen that causes white-nose syndrome. This work will explore whether similar coexistence strategies have arisen in bats repeatedly as the disease spread from Asia, to Europe, and then to North America over the last several thousand years. This project also includes communications training for wildlife disease researchers and stakeholders, work with state and local resource managers to develop disease management strategies, and the establishment of international networks to promote cross-border wildlife conservation.Studying disease dynamics and population impacts along an invasion gradient can facilitate understanding of the host-pathogen interactions that shape populations and species communities. This project will use field studies, lab experiments, and mathematical models to address four central aims: (1) Quantify contact networks and transmission along a pathogen invasion gradient; (2) Determine the role of environmental factors and the strength of selection on host-pathogen dynamics; (3) Examine the role of host resistance, tolerance, and pathogen virulence in population persistence across epidemic and endemic regions, and (4) Determine the impact of disease in endemic regions on current and historic populations using demographic studies and paleogenomics. To address these aims, this project will leverage an interdisciplinary international team to develop a mechanistic understanding of host persistence with a virulent pathogen. Combined, this work has wide-ranging implications for reducing the consequences of emerging infectious diseases in multi-host systems.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.