NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Mechanisms of Sensory-Motor Coordination in Zoospores of Pathogenic Chytrid Fungi

这项行动资助了2020财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究员将调查病原体（致病生物体）对目标的检测与向目标移动之间的关系。这两个系统对发病机制（疾病）很重要;了解它们如何进化和共同发挥作用对于创造治疗方法和预防未来的流行病至关重要。壶菌是一组单细胞真菌，在脊椎动物、无脊椎动物、植物、藻类和其他真菌中反复出现为病原体。该项目将重点关注壶菌的感染性生命阶段-揭示它们如何定位，导航和识别宿主。目前，两种壶菌正在消灭全球两栖动物种群，这是有记录以来由于病原体造成的最大生物多样性损失。了解壶菌如何找到和感染宿主将开辟新的途径，以减轻其当前和未来的生态影响，同时也推进寄生虫生物学的理解。此外，壶菌是致病性流行病的典型，可通过生物多样性的丧失破坏生态系统的稳定-可能导致人类疾病携带者的增加和正常生态系统功能的丧失。除了这项研究外，研究员还将与马萨诸塞州大学阿默斯特分校的外展小组合作，促进STEM中代表性不足的群体的包容性和可见性。感觉和运动系统通过信号转导通路联系在一起，使细胞能够与外部环境协调行为。壶菌寄生虫可能将感觉和运动系统联系起来，以寻找和识别具有破坏性结果的宿主。该项目预测壶菌感染在很大程度上依赖于可以被破坏的综合感觉-运动通路。通过行为实验，共聚焦和超分辨率显微镜，和遗传学，研究员将实现两个目标。1：确定壶菌是否使用可扩散的化学线索来识别和感染宿主。2：确定广泛保守的信号传导组分在指导壶菌感染行为中的作用。该项目将导致更深入地了解壶菌感染所需的感觉和运动途径，并将回答有关寄生虫，致病性和感觉运动协调的更广泛的问题。该研究员将与来自弱势群体的本科生合作，制作开源教育材料，用于教授光和视觉是如何进化并与不同动物的行为相结合的。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。

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. The Fellow will investigate the relationship between detection of a target and movement towards the target by a pathogen (disease causing organism). These two systems are important for pathogenesis (disease); understanding how they evolve, and function together is crucial for creating treatments and preventing future epidemics. The chytrids are a group of single-celled fungi that have repeatedly emerged as pathogenic agents in vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, algae, and other fungi. This project will focus on the infectious life stage of chytrid fungi – revealing how they locate, navigate towards, and identify hosts. Currently, two species of chytrids are annihilating global amphibian populations in an epidemic that represents the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity due to a pathogen. Understanding how chytrids find and infect hosts will open new avenues to mitigate their current and future ecological impact while also advancing the understanding of parasite biology. Furthermore, chytrid fungi serve as a model for pathogenic epidemics that can destabilize ecosystems through the loss of biodiversity – potentially leading to increases in carriers of human disease and loss of normal ecosystem function. In addition to this research, the Fellow will work with outreach groups at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to promote the inclusion and visibility of underrepresented groups in STEM.Sensory and motor systems are linked through signal transduction pathways, allowing cells to coordinate behaviors with the external environment. Chytrid parasites have likely linked sensory and motor systems to find and identify hosts with devastating results. This project predicts that chytrid infection relies heavily on integrated sensory-motor pathways that can be disrupted. Through behavioral experiments, confocal and super-resolution microscopy, and phylogenetics, the Fellow will achieve two objectives. 1: determine if chytrids use diffusible chemical cues to identify and infect hosts. 2: identify the role broadly conserved signaling components play in guiding chytrid infectious behavior. This project will result in a deeper understanding of the sensory and motor pathways needed for chytrid infection and will answer broader questions about parasitism, pathogenicity, and sensory-motor coordination. The Fellow will collaborate with undergraduates from underrepresented groups to produce open-source educational material for teaching how light and vision have evolved and integrated with behavior in different animals.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.