NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Exploration of viruses in hydrothermal vents of the Lost City and the rocky subseafloor

2020 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：探索失落之城热液喷口和岩石海底的病毒

• 批准号: 2010708
• 负责人: Cecilia Prator
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Prator, Cecilia A
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2010708&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Where life is found, so too are viruses. Viral life abounds in the air, water and soil. With each new infection, viruses can have a profound impact on their hosts by altering genes, affecting host diversity and abundance, and influencing cycles in biology and the environment. In the oceans, microorganisms drive nutrient and energy cycles and make up more than 90% of the living biomass, yet the pervasiveness of viral life on the seafloor remains largely unknown. The recently discovered Lost City hydrothermal field, with its towering carbonate monoliths venting warm, high pH fluids, represents one of the most unusual earth systems described to date. This project will examine the role of viruses in the Lost City chimneys, which has not been previously explored. Characterizing viral diversity and abundance in the Lost City, will lead to a better understanding of capacity of viruses to thrive in extreme conditions, and reveal the role viruses play in extreme ecosystems, which are relevant to the origins of life. To broaden the impact of the project, the fellow will produce educational videos for schools and mentor underserved students in research at the university.Viral diversity in the Lost City will be explored through the analysis of metagenomes from chimney biofilms and hydrothermal fluids venting from the chimneys. In addition to identifying viral sequences, the metagenomic sequences of archaea and bacteria will be examined for evidence of viral infections through the identification of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat) sequences in host genomes. CRISPRs provide a record of previous viral infections of that host, so cataloging the distribution of viral-derived sequences encoded within CRISPRs in the metagenomes will provide a window into the network of virus-host relationships. The Fellow will also examine the morphologies of viral particles from Lost City chimneys to identify novel virus morphotypes and open doors for future research to characterize extreme virus structures, protein stability, and virus evolution. The combination of metagenomic and morphological approaches will provide a first look at the limits of viral activity in high-temperature, high-pH environments, and it will shed light on viral-mediated evolutionary processes in deep subsurface environments. The Fellow will cultivate public engagement by collaborating with the Genetic Science Learning Center (University of Utah) to create educational videos and lessons that can be used in K-12 classrooms. Mentorship of low-income and underserved high school and college students through the University of Utah’s Upward Bound and TRIO programs will also be integrated into the research program.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.

这一行动资助了2020财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学领域代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持一项针对该研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。哪里有生命，哪里就有病毒。病毒生命在空气、水和土壤中大量存在。对于每一次新的感染，病毒可以通过改变基因、影响宿主的多样性和丰富性以及影响生物和环境的循环来对宿主产生深远的影响。在海洋中，微生物驱动营养和能量循环，占生物生物量的90%以上，但病毒生命在海底的普及程度在很大程度上仍不清楚。最近发现的Lost City热液气田，其高耸的碳酸盐单体释放出温暖的、高pH值的流体，代表了迄今为止描述的最不寻常的地球系统之一。这个项目将研究病毒在失落之城烟囱中的作用，这是以前从未探索过的。描述失落城市中病毒的多样性和丰富性，将有助于更好地了解病毒在极端条件下茁壮成长的能力，并揭示病毒在与生命起源相关的极端生态系统中所起的作用。为了扩大该项目的影响，这位研究员将为学校制作教育视频，并指导在大学进行研究的未得到充分服务的学生。将通过分析烟囱生物膜和烟囱喷发的热液流体的元基因组来探索迷失城市的病毒多样性。除了鉴定病毒序列外，还将通过鉴定宿主基因组中的CRISPR(簇状规则间隔短回文重复序列)序列来检查古菌和细菌的元基因组序列，以寻找病毒感染的证据。CRISPR提供了该宿主以前病毒感染的记录，因此对CRISPR中编码的病毒衍生序列在元基因组中的分布进行编目将为了解病毒-宿主关系网络提供一个窗口。这位研究员还将检查来自Lost City烟囱的病毒颗粒的形态，以确定新的病毒形态，并为未来的研究打开大门，以表征极端病毒结构、蛋白质稳定性和病毒进化。元基因组学和形态学方法的结合将第一次揭示病毒在高温、高pH环境中的活动极限，并将揭示深层地下环境中病毒介导的进化过程。该研究员将通过与遗传科学学习中心(犹他大学)合作制作可用于K-12课堂的教育视频和课程来培养公众参与度。通过犹他大学的向上绑定和三人计划为低收入和服务不足的高中生和大学生提供指导也将被整合到研究计划中。该奖项反映了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。