RAPID: A matter of life or death: Identifying factors that regulate susceptibility or resistance of bay scallops to an emergent coccidian parasite

海湾扇贝（Argopecten irradians irradians）是纽约州和该地区沿海地区最具经济和生态重要性的物种之一。在2019年夏季/秋季，长岛东部90%的扇贝死亡，这与一种未描述的寄生虫的出现相吻合，这种寄生虫会破坏受感染动物的肾脏。遗传分析表明，寄生虫属于寄生虫的球虫亚类，这种病原体现在被指定为海湾扇贝球虫或BSC。这个项目将确定BSC如何感染和杀死扇贝，以及为什么有些扇贝对感染或死亡有抵抗力。这项研究的结果促进了科学的进步，因为研究将确定调节扇贝中宿主-寄生虫相互作用的机制，并可能帮助我们了解其他球虫如何在经济上重要的系统中引起疾病。它促进了国家的繁荣和生物经济，因为研究结果有助于扇贝养殖户和生态学家预防或减少这种经济重要作物的死亡。这项研究还将提供工具，使一个广泛的研究社区工作的无脊椎动物的顶复门寄生虫。该提案还利用资金培养博士后，以及研究生和本科生来培养下一代科学家。这项工作的预期结果将有利于恢复海湾扇贝在纽约沃茨，并将作为一个参考，如果BSC蔓延到其他沿海地区在美国。尽管共同的性质，球虫感染无脊椎动物，很少有人知道这些微生物的生物学和调节感染成功的因素。该RAPID将使用正在进行的动物流行病来产生表征感染海湾扇贝（BSC）的球虫的生态和经济重要成员所需的信息。这项研究将使用高通量测序技术的组合（基因组和RNA测序），传统的细胞技术（寄生虫纯化，原代细胞培养），和分子生物学方法来表征BSC和探测寄生虫生命阶段和扇贝健康之间的关系;评估疾病如何随着夏季条件的开始而发展，这些条件被认为对海湾扇贝有压力;并确定哪些遗传和环境因素区分抗性扇贝和易感扇贝。这些新数据有望解决一直阻碍人们理解海洋无脊椎动物中BSC生存和疾病机制的信息缺口。此外，从这项工作中获得的遗传信息可以成为开发诊断工具的基础，以识别未来的BSC感染和爆发，这有助于生物经济学。这项研究将确定调节扇贝宿主-寄生虫相互作用的机制，并可能帮助我们了解其他球虫如何在经济上重要的系统中引起疾病。这项研究还将提供工具，使一个广泛的研究社区工作的无脊椎动物的顶复门寄生虫。该奖项还用于资助培养博士后，以及培养下一代STEM研究人员的研究生和本科生。该奖项反映了NSF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 bay scallop, Argopecten irradians irradians, is one of the most economically and ecologically important species in coastal areas of New York State and the region. In summer/fall 2019, 90% of the scallops in eastern Long Island died, and this coincided with the emergence of an undescribed parasite that disrupts the kidney of infected animals. Genetic analysis showed that the parasite belongs to the Coccidia subclass of parasites, and this pathogen is now designated bay scallop Coccidia or BSC. This project will identify how BSC infects and kills scallops, and why some scallops are resistant to infection or death. Results from this study promotes the progress of science because research will identify mechanisms that regulate host-parasite interactions in scallops, and may help us understand how other Coccidia cause disease in economically important systems. It advances the national prosperity and the bioeconomy because results help scallop farmers and ecologists prevent or minimize death of this economically-important crop. This research will also provide tools to enable a broad research community working on apicomplexan parasites of invertebrates. This proposal also uses funding to train a post-doc, and graduate and undergraduate students to train the next generation of scientists. Results expected from this work will facilitate the recovery of bay scallops in New York waters, and will serve as a reference if BSC spreads to other coastal regions in the USA.Despite the common nature of Coccidia infection in invertebrates, very little is known about the biology of these microorganisms and the factors that regulate infection success. This RAPID will use an ongoing epizootic to generate information needed to characterize an ecologically- and economically-important member of the Coccidia that infects bay scallop (BSC). The study will use a combination of high-throughput sequencing techniques (genome and RNA sequencing), traditional cellular techniques (parasite purification, primary cell culture), and molecular biology methods to characterize BSC and probe the relationship between parasite life stages and scallop health; to evaluate how the disease will develop with the onset of summer conditions, conditions thought to be stressful to bay scallops; and to determine what genetic and environmental factors differentiate resistant scallops from susceptible ones. The new data are expected to solve an information gap that has been hampering the understanding of the mechanisms of survival and disease of BSCs in marine invertebrates. Moreover, the genetic information obtained from this work can be the basis for developing diagnostic tools to identify BSC infections and outbreaks in the future, which helps the bioecomony. This research will identify mechanisms that regulate host-parasite interactions in scallops, and may help us understand how other Coccidia cause disease in economically important systems. This research will also provide tools to enable a broad research community working on apicomplexan parasites of invertebrates. This award also uses funding to train a post-doc, and graduate and undergraduate students to train the next generation of STEM researchers.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.