EAGER: Temporal Occurrence, Spatial Dynamics, and Host Diversity of Betacoronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, with Implications for Mitigating Covid-19 Re-emergence

EAGER：包括 SARS-CoV-2 在内的 β 冠状病毒的时间发生、空间动态和宿主多样性，对缓解 Covid-19 重新出现的影响

• 批准号: 2033482
• 负责人: Joseph Cook
• 金额: $ 19.97万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 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: 2020-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2033482&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Temporal; Occurrence; Spatial; Dynamics

Frozen museum collections provide a largely untapped biodiversity infrastructure that would potentially allow for the study of pandemics, like that caused by SARS-CoV-2, in substantially new and different ways. This project will leverage a vast set of frozen samples from wild mammals and engage new expertise to develop powerful interdisciplinary approaches to studying pathogens that emerge from wildlife. This study will examine the frozen tissue collections of the Museum of Southwestern Biology’s Division of Genomic Resources (DGR) with specimens collected from Asian countries near China that are ideal for testing for SARS-CoV-2 virus. Detailed understanding of the distribution of pathogens in the wild and how they cross species boundaries, including switching to infect humans, could provide a critical foundation for prevention and mitigation of future zoonotic infections or reinfections. New workflows that fully leverage this biodiversity and zoonotic pathogen infrastructure will be developed. This project also provides training opportunities for students, including from underrepresented minorities, as well as outreach to the public.During the last few decades, disease ecologists and evolutionary biologists have identified key factors involved in the spillover of pathogens from reservoir host species into human populations. Understanding the distribution of the virus in wild mammals will contribute to a better assessment of the potential for direct contact between human populations and the virus. Pathogen detection will be carried out via molecular methods in tissues from 1,000 target (bar-coded) mammal specimens from eastern Asia with a special focus on SARS-CoV-2 and its coronavirus relatives. For positive tissues, sequencing of whole genomes of viruses will be conducted using established techniques for coronaviruses optimized for downstream comparative analyses. Phylogeographic methods will be used to characterize the geographic variation and historical demography of viruses and associated mammalian hosts. These efforts will leverage already existing natural history collection materials to inform SARS-CoV-2 evolution, Covid-19 emergence, and more generally pathogen emergence and epidemiological models.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.

冷冻的博物馆藏品提供了一个基本上未开发的生物多样性基础设施，可能会允许以新的和不同的方式研究流行病，如SARS-CoV-2引起的流行病。该项目将利用来自野生哺乳动物的大量冷冻样本，并利用新的专业知识开发强大的跨学科方法来研究野生动物中出现的病原体。这项研究将检查西南生物学博物馆基因组资源部（DGR）的冷冻组织收藏品，其中包括从中国附近的亚洲国家收集的标本，这些标本是检测SARS-CoV-2病毒的理想选择。详细了解病原体在野外的分布以及它们如何跨越物种界限，包括转变为感染人类，可以为预防和减轻未来的人畜共患病感染或再感染提供关键基础。将开发充分利用这种生物多样性和人畜共患病病原体基础设施的新工作流程。该项目还为学生提供培训机会，包括来自代表性不足的少数群体的学生，以及与公众的外联活动。在过去的几十年里，疾病生态学家和进化生物学家已经确定了病原体从水库宿主物种溢出到人类种群的关键因素。了解病毒在野生哺乳动物中的分布将有助于更好地评估人类与病毒直接接触的可能性。病原体检测将通过分子方法在来自东亚的1,000个目标（条形码）哺乳动物标本的组织中进行，特别关注SARS-CoV-2及其冠状病毒亲属。对于阳性组织，将使用针对下游比较分析优化的冠状病毒的既定技术进行病毒全基因组测序。系统地理学方法将用于描述病毒和相关哺乳动物宿主的地理变异和历史人口统计学特征。这些努力将利用现有的自然历史收集材料，为SARS-CoV-2进化、Covid-19出现以及更普遍的病原体出现和流行病学模型提供信息。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。