NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Contributions of the Cnidarian microbiome to holobiont stress tolerance

该行动为2020财年美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。本研究旨在通过对珊瑚生理及其微生物伙伴的综合效应的综合研究来了解珊瑚的耐热性。造礁珊瑚构成了全球珊瑚礁的三维栖息地结构，珊瑚礁是具有生态、经济和文化意义的生态系统。值得注意的是，珊瑚与对珊瑚生存有很大贡献的细菌共生，这些伙伴经常会随着环境的变化而变化。气候变化导致海洋温度迅速上升，严重威胁到珊瑚的生存，但并非所有珊瑚都同样容易受到气候变化的影响。已经生活在极端环境中的珊瑚可能会让我们了解到，当全球气候变得更加极端时，耐受海洋变暖的珊瑚如何存活到未来。在极端海洋变暖的情况下，与珊瑚有关的细菌能在多大程度上改善珊瑚的生存，人们知之甚少。这项研究将有助于揭示与珊瑚有关的细菌如何帮助对海洋变暖不太耐受的珊瑚在气候变化中生存。此外，该项目还将提供数据，帮助科学家规划干预措施，以保护对沿海社区具有经济和文化重要性的珊瑚礁。该研究员是一名代表性不足的拉丁裔移民，他将接触到本项目之外无法获得的资源。研究员的培训计划包括由美国和欧洲的珊瑚专家共同指导，将研究员的科学网络和资源扩展到两个半球。为了扩大其他人的参与，研究员将作为一个榜样，为代表性不足群体的成员进行指导和外联活动。该项目的第一个目标是通过分析荷兰加勒比海库拉帕拉索内陆湾和边缘珊瑚礁的珊瑚物种样本，比较有利和极端环境下珊瑚相关细菌的组成。第二个目标是在美国佛罗里达礁区的有利珊瑚礁和极端珊瑚礁之间进行互惠移植实验，以确定细菌群落如何促进珊瑚的适应能力。由于研究珊瑚的适应能力需要在该领域做出重大而长期的承诺，因此第三个目标是利用实验室珊瑚模型，即Exaiptasia海葵，来预测细菌群落在不同生命阶段对热应激的反应。样品处理包括DNA提取、聚合酶链反应（PCR）、文库制备、高通量16S rRNA基因扩增子测序和新型生物信息学管道。为了扩大生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与，研究员将利用类似的背景经验，将指导、探究式学习和外联与本项目的目标结合起来。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 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. This research seeks to understand heat tolerance in corals through an integrative study on the combined effects of coral physiology and its microbial partners. Reef-building corals make up the 3D habitat structure of global coral reefs that are ecologically, economically, and culturally significant ecosystems. Notably, corals live in symbiosis with bacteria that contribute greatly to coral survival, and these partners can often shift in response to changes in the environment. Rapidly increasing ocean temperatures due to climate change severely threaten coral survival, but all corals are not equally vulnerable to climate change. Corals already living in extreme environments may offer insight into how corals that are tolerant to ocean warming might survive into the future when the global climate will become more extreme. The extent to which coral-associated bacteria may improve coral survival under extreme ocean warming is poorly understood. This research will help to reveal how coral-associated bacteria may help corals that are less tolerant to ocean warming to survive climate change. Additionally, the project will provide data that will assist scientists in planning interventions to protect coral reefs that are economically and culturally important to coastal communities. The Fellow, an under-represented Latina immigrant, will be exposed to resources not otherwise available outside of this project. The training plan for the Fellow includes co-mentorship from coral experts in the US and Europe, extending the Fellow’s scientific network and resources across two hemispheres. To broaden participation of others, the Fellow will serve as a role model and conduct mentoring and outreach activities for members of underrepresented groups. The first goal of the project is to compare the composition of coral-associated bacteria in favorable and extreme environments by analyzing samples from coral species present in both inland bay and fringing reefs of Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean. The second goal is to perform a reciprocal transplant experiment between favorable and extreme reefs in the Florida Keys Reef Tract, USA to determine how the bacterial community contributes to coral acclimatization capacity. Because studying coral adaptive capacity takes major, long-term commitments in the field, the third goal is to utilize a laboratory coral model, the Exaiptasia anemone, to predict bacterial community responses to thermal stress at different life stages. Sample processing includes DNA extraction, polymerase chain reactions (PCR), library preparation, high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and novel bioinformatics pipelines. In effort to broaden the participation of groups under-represented in biology, the Fellow will draw on experiencing a similar background, to integrate mentorship, inquiry-based learning, and outreach with the goals of this project.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.