NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Viral communities in a warming world

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. As climate change alters temperature patterns across the globe, environmental viruses will face the same challenges as macroorganisms. In this work, the Fellow will investigate how environmental bacteriophages (phages; viruses that infect bacteria) may be impacted by changing temperatures. After isolating a set of soil bacteria and phage strains from different climates and seasons, the Fellow will characterize their growth at different temperatures, quantify relationships between thermal performance and other traits, and test how viruses can adapt to overcome extinction risk under thermal change. This work will determine natural variation in viral thermal performance as well as constraints and mechanisms of adaptation to temperature, which will inform predictions of climate change impacts on viruses. Given the important role that bacteria and phages can play in shaping ecosystem-level processes, these results may have broad implications beyond microbial communities. The Fellow will also broaden participation primarily through a transitional mentoring program for underrepresented, final-year graduate students.While host-virus interactions are known to be temperature-dependent, relatively little research has focused on understanding the factors that shape thermal performance in environmental viruses. This research seeks to address this gap through observational and experimental studies of thermal performance in novel soil bacteria and phage isolates. Isolations will be done in two seasons (summer and winter) at two sites (subtropical and temperate climates) to determine how viral thermal performance varies across time and space. The Fellow will then experimentally evolve the viruses to adapt to changes in biotic (bacterial hosts) and abiotic (thermal) conditions. To determine the dynamics and mechanisms of adaptation, experimental evolution will be followed by population and individual-level sequencing and phenotypic assays. The Fellow will be trained in environmental microbe isolation, measurement of thermal reaction norms, and the generation and interpretation of molecular data throughout experimental evolution. In addition to the transitional mentoring program, this work will broaden participation through the Fellow’s commitment to equitable access to research opportunities and mentorship of diverse groups in the lab, as well as engagement with outreach efforts in the local community.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.