BEE- Ecology of adaptation to food quality by genes and microbiomes in lake plankton

动物体内含有大量的细菌，这些细菌对它们的饮食很敏感，对它们的健康至关重要。这些看不见的参与者是进化、人口波动和生态系统动态的主要力量，但它们的作用在很大程度上是未知的。该项目研究了与动物相关的细菌和进化变化在两个关键生态过程中的影响：从植物到食草动物的能量流动，以及捕食者和猎物种群的循环。湖泊中的浮游生物是测试这些问题的理想选择，因为它们无处不在，并且可以在多代和进化时间尺度上进行实验。该项目测试了从加州内华达山脉的顶部到底部浮游生物对饮食和气候变化的反应中进化和微生物组组成的作用。在无脊椎动物和藻类循环种群的经典实验室系统中进行的实验和模型将测试进化和相关细菌变化在食物链稳定性中的作用。本研究探讨了宿主相关微生物和遗传适应在面临环境变化的种群和生态系统的稳定性和复原力中的不可或缺的作用，以及它们维持提供清洁水和健康渔业等重要生态系统服务的能力。该项目将扩大针对西班牙裔社区的STEM教育活动，并将培养一名博士后研究员和一名研究生。该项目采用综合方法，将自然观察、实验室实验和建模结合起来，测试遗传适应和微生物组在种群和生态系统的适应潜力中的作用。对环境样本进行测序将揭示浮游动物微生物组的变化，从具有低质量陆地食物基础的温暖湖泊到具有更有营养藻类的寒冷湖泊。从不同湖泊分离的克隆体进行微生物组移植实验，将揭示遗传适应和宿主相关细菌在能量从生产者向消费者转移中的作用。在有无共适应微生物的情况下培养无脊椎动物将揭示它们对捕食周期动态稳定性的影响，功能基因测序（宏基因组学）将显示宿主基因与相关共生体如何产生适应潜力。最后，建立湖泊食物网的数学模型，综合实证结果，探讨微生物群落对消费者初级生产的自上而下控制以及能量向鱼类等上层营养层的垂直流动的影响。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。

The bodies of animals contain multitudes of bacteria that are sensitive to their diet and critical to their health. These unseen players are major forces in evolution, population fluctuations and the dynamics of ecosystems, but their roles are largely unknown. This project investigates the effects of animal-associated bacteria and evolutionary change in two critical ecological processes: the flow of energy from plants to herbivores, and cycling of predator and prey populations. Plankton in lakes are ideal for testing these questions as they are ubiquitous and amenable to experiments over multiple generations and evolutionary time scales. The project tests the roles of evolution and microbiome composition in the response of plankton to changes in diet and climate from the top to the bottom of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Experiments and models in a classic lab system of cycling populations of invertebrates and algae will test the roles of evolution and changes in associated bacteria in food chain stability. This research explores the integral roles of host-associated microbes and genetic adaptation in the stability and resilience of populations and ecosystems facing environmental change, and their capacity to sustain delivery of vital ecosystem services like clean water and healthy fisheries. This project will expand STEM education activities for Hispanic communities and will train a postdoctoral researcher and a graduate student. The project uses a combined approach integrating observations in nature, lab experiments and modeling to test the roles of genetic adaptation and microbiomes in the adaptive potential of populations and ecosystems. Sequencing environmental samples will reveal changes in zooplankton microbiomes from warm lakes with a low quality, terrestrial food base, to cold lakes with more nutritious algae. Microbiome transplant experiments with clones isolated from different lakes will reveal the roles of genetic adaptation and host-associated bacteria in the transfer of energy from producers to consumers. Culturing invertebrates in the presence and absence of co-adapted microbes will reveal their effect on dynamic stability of predator prey cycles, and sequencing of functional genes (metagenomics) will show how adaptive potential arises from the host’s genes vs. associated symbionts. Finally, mathematical models of lake food webs will synthesize the empirical results to explore the effects of microbiomes for top-down control of primary production by consumers and the vertical flow of energy to upper trophic levels like fish.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.