BEE: Eco-evolutionary dynamics of disease-induced apex predator declines

BEE：疾病引起的顶级捕食者下降的生态进化动力学

• 批准号: 2027446
• 负责人: Andrew Storfer
• 金额: $ 150万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2027446&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BEE; Eco; evolutionary; dynamics; disease

This project will study how the spread of an infectious disease can affect the co-evolution of the pathogen and the host, and who those changes can create changes in the rest of the animal community. Emerging infectious diseases and the global loss of biodiversity are two leading challenges for the life sciences in the 21st century. Declines of the iconic Tasmanian devil in Australia represent an example of these two threats acting together to endanger a species. Additionally, as such large predators decline, the role of other species shifts in the food chain, which can lead to loss of biodiversity via secondary declines and extinctions of other species. These community changes can then feed back on the predator themselves, resulting in changes in developmental timing and reproduction. Thus, it is critical to study how losses of top predators lead to changes in food webs, population densities, and evolution of species with which they interact. Through outreach to the general public, this study will increase understanding of how infectious diseases affect biological communities and influence biodiversity. It will also provide training opportunities for US graduate students and post-doctoral scholars in an international setting.Tasmanian devils and their fatal transmissible cancer, devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), represents an ideal study system to elucidate the impacts of top predator losses on community dynamics. The east to west spread of DFTD provides a rare, natural experiment to test how temporal variation in extent of devil declines across Tasmania affects community dynamics. Devils are indeed community architects, the declines of which cause the direct effects of mesopredator release that then cascades through the food web to indirect secondary declines of native species. The research will bridge ecological and evolutionary theory to predict how co-evolutionary interactions of devils and DFTD will affect current and future devil population densities. These predictions will then be plugged into (structural equation) models that incorporate field studies of ecological interactions within the Tasmanian devil food web across the decline gradient. Feedbacks of these community-level changes on Tasmanian devil life history evolution will be evaluated with genomic study of the basis of a rapid developmental trajectory and precocial breeding in female devils. Evolutionary feedbacks on mesopredators and prey will be assessed using landscape genomics studies to test the influence of variation in devil density on gene flow and adaptive potential across multiple generations.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.

该项目将研究传染病的传播如何影响病原体和宿主的共同进化，以及这些变化如何在动物群落的其他部分产生变化。新出现的传染病和全球生物多样性的丧失是21世纪生命科学面临的两大挑战。澳大利亚标志性的袋獾数量的减少是这两种威胁共同作用危及一个物种的一个例子。此外，随着这些大型食肉动物的减少，其他物种在食物链中的作用发生变化，这可能导致生物多样性的丧失，导致其他物种的二次衰退和灭绝。这些群落变化可以反馈给捕食者本身，导致发育时间和繁殖的变化。因此，研究顶级捕食者的损失如何导致食物网，种群密度和与它们相互作用的物种进化的变化至关重要。通过向公众宣传，这项研究将增加对传染病如何影响生物群落和生物多样性的了解。它还将为美国研究生和博士后学者提供国际培训机会。袋獾及其致命的传染性癌症，魔鬼面部肿瘤病（DFTD），是一个理想的研究系统，以阐明顶级捕食者的损失对社区动态的影响。DFTD从东到西的传播提供了一个罕见的，自然的实验，以测试如何在整个塔斯马尼亚州的魔鬼下降程度的时间变化影响社区动态。魔鬼确实是社区的建筑师，它的下降导致中捕食者释放的直接影响，然后通过食物网级联到本地物种的间接二次下降。这项研究将弥合生态和进化理论，以预测魔鬼和DFTD的共同进化相互作用将如何影响当前和未来的魔鬼种群密度。这些预测，然后将被插入（结构方程）模型，纳入塔斯马尼亚魔鬼食物网内的生态相互作用的下降梯度的实地研究。这些社区层面的变化塔斯马尼亚魔鬼的生活史进化的反馈将进行评估与基因组研究的基础上的快速发展轨迹和早熟繁殖的女性魔鬼。进化反馈的mesopredators和猎物将使用景观基因组学研究进行评估，以测试的影响，在魔鬼密度的变化对基因流和适应潜力在多个generations.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

项目成果

A transmissible cancer shifts from emergence to endemism in Tasmanian devils

塔斯马尼亚袋獾中的一种传染性癌症从出现转变为地方流行

• DOI: 10.1126/science.abb9772
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Science
• 影响因子: 56.9
• 作者: Patton, Austin H.;Lawrance, Matthew F.;Margres, Mark J.;Kozakiewicz, Christopher P.;Hamede, Rodrigo;Ruiz-Aravena, Manuel;Hamilton, David G.;Comte, Sebastien;Ricci, Lauren E.;Taylor, Robyn L.
• 通讯作者: Taylor, Robyn L.