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

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：变暖世界中的病毒群落

• 批准号: 2109819
• 负责人: Catherine Hernandez
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Hernandez, Catherine Amanda
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-03-01 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2109819&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

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.

该行动资助2021财年美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。随着气候变化改变全球温度模式，环境病毒将面临与大型生物相同的挑战。在这项工作中，研究员将研究环境噬菌体（噬菌体；感染细菌的病毒）如何受到温度变化的影响。在从不同的气候和季节中分离出一组土壤细菌和噬菌体菌株后，研究员将描述它们在不同温度下的生长特征，量化热性能与其他特征之间的关系，并测试病毒如何适应以克服热变化下的灭绝风险。这项工作将确定病毒热性能的自然变化以及适应温度的限制和机制，这将为预测气候变化对病毒的影响提供信息。鉴于细菌和噬菌体在形成生态系统水平过程中所起的重要作用，这些结果可能具有微生物群落之外的广泛含义。该奖学金获得者还将主要通过一项过渡性指导计划扩大参与范围，该计划面向代表性不足的最后一年研究生。虽然已知宿主-病毒相互作用依赖于温度，但相对较少的研究集中在了解影响环境病毒热性能的因素上。本研究旨在通过对新型土壤细菌和噬菌体分离物热性能的观察和实验研究来解决这一差距。将在两个地点（亚热带和温带气候）的两个季节（夏季和冬季）进行隔离，以确定病毒的热性能如何随时间和空间变化。然后，研究员将对病毒进行实验进化，以适应生物（细菌宿主）和非生物（热）条件的变化。为了确定适应的动态和机制，实验进化将随后进行群体和个体水平的测序和表型分析。该研究员将接受环境微生物分离、热反应规范测量以及整个实验进化过程中分子数据的生成和解释方面的培训。除了过渡性指导计划，这项工作还将通过研究员对公平获得研究机会和指导实验室不同群体的承诺，以及参与当地社区的外展工作，扩大参与范围。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。