CAREER: Integrating Field Experiments, Mathematical Models, and Inclusive Education To Understand Ecological Consequences of Variation in Host-Pathogen Interactions

职业：整合现场实验、数学模型和全纳教育，了解宿主-病原体相互作用变异的生态后果

• 批准号: 2145704
• 负责人: Arietta Fleming-Davies
• 金额: $ 55.41万
• 依托单位: University of San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2027-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2145704&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Integrating; Field; Experiments; Mathematical

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).In nature, both disease-causing pathogens and their animal hosts exhibit tremendous variation. For example, hosts vary in their ability to resist disease, their history of disease exposure and immunity, and their general physical condition, while pathogens vary in their abilities to infect hosts, persist in the environment, and spread over long distances. This variation has important consequences for how diseases spread in populations, and for the evolution of both pathogen and host species. This project will investigate sources and consequences of variation in a virus that infects the Gulf fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae). Field and lab experiments will be used to investigate three main sources of variation: pathogen genetic variation, host variation, and environmental variation due to human impacts such as urbanization and a warming climate. This CAREER project will be strengthened by education efforts to bring new viewpoints into ecology through support of inclusive quantitative biology research and teaching. Despite a widely recognized national need for graduates with the quantitative skills sought by industry, many undergraduate students struggle with quantitative content and leave science degree programs in unacceptably high numbers. The educational components of this work are founded in biology education research on effective strategies for retaining underrepresented students in science, including individualized mentoring through research experiences, course-based programs, and building a sense of belonging in science. This project is well-poised to take advantage of recent advances in theory and computational tools for studying host and pathogen variation, in order to understand how genetic and ecological sources of intraspecific variation affect host-pathogen population dynamics. Working in an insect-baculovirus system, this research will produce the following outcomes: 1. Use field and lab experiments to determine how intraspecific variation in pathogen life history traits affects outcomes of competition between pathogen strains and long-term population dynamics of hosts and pathogens; 2. Quantify how host-pathogen interactions are affected by continuous variation in host susceptibility to infection and key environmental sources of variation; 3.Apply the above findings to larger scales and long-term population consequences using mathematical models that incorporate the above sources of variation into distributions of host and pathogen traits. The integrated educational component of this CAREER project will produce the following core outcomes: 1. Establish the foundation for a long-term collaborative program with pairs of University of San Diego and University of Puerto Rico undergraduates working together on projects across both sites; 2. Develop a program for sustained undergraduate-student-led bilingual outreach in our local San Diego community, working with local partners and schools; 3. Create, pilot, and refine a course-based program to recruit and support underrepresented students in quantitative undergraduate biology research at the University of San Diego.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.

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。在自然界中，致病病原体和它们的动物宿主都表现出巨大的变异。例如，宿主的抗病能力、疾病暴露史和免疫力以及一般身体状况各不相同，而病原体感染宿主、在环境中持续存在和远距离传播的能力各不相同。这种变异对疾病如何在人群中传播，以及病原体和宿主物种的进化都有重要影响。本项目将调查一种感染海湾贝母蝴蝶（Agraulis vanillae）的病毒变异的来源和后果。野外和实验室实验将用于调查变异的三个主要来源：病原体遗传变异、宿主变异和人类影响（如城市化和气候变暖）造成的环境变异。通过支持包容性的定量生物学研究和教学，加强教育工作，为生态学带来新的观点。尽管人们普遍认为，国家需要具备行业所需的定量技能的毕业生，但许多本科生在定量内容方面遇到了困难，离开科学学位课程的人数之多令人难以接受。这项工作的教育组成部分建立在生物教育研究的基础上，研究如何有效地留住代表性不足的科学学生，包括通过研究经验、基于课程的项目进行个性化指导，以及建立科学归属感。该项目将充分利用宿主和病原体变异的理论和计算工具的最新进展，以了解种内变异的遗传和生态来源如何影响宿主-病原体种群动态。在昆虫-杆状病毒系统中工作，本研究将产生以下结果：利用田间和实验室实验确定病原体生活史特征的种内变异如何影响病原体菌株之间竞争的结果以及宿主和病原体的长期种群动态；2. 量化宿主-病原体相互作用如何受到宿主对感染易感性和关键环境变异源的持续变化的影响；3.利用将上述变异来源纳入宿主和病原体特征分布的数学模型，将上述发现应用于更大规模和长期的种群后果。CAREER项目的综合教育部分将产生以下核心成果：建立一个长期合作项目的基础，让圣地亚哥大学和波多黎各大学的本科生在两个地点共同开展项目；2. 与当地合作伙伴和学校合作，在圣地亚哥当地社区开展以本科生为主导的持续双语推广项目；3. 创建、试点和完善一个基于课程的项目，以招募和支持圣地亚哥大学本科生定量生物学研究中代表性不足的学生。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。