NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2022: Innate immunity could buffer extinction risk in genetically compromised populations

2022 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：先天免疫可以缓冲遗传受损人群的灭绝风险

• 批准号: 2208923
• 负责人: Megan Barela Hudgell
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Barela Hudgell, Megan A
• 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: 2022-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2208923&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. The long term survival of a species is thought to be associated with the genetic diversity of that species. In fact, current conservation efforts for endangered and threatened species work to maintain genetic diversity within populations in the hopes of increasing their chances for long term survival. However, recent studies have challenged this idea. The fellow seeks to understand how the loss of genetic diversity affects the survival of a species by focusing on the immune system, which allows organisms to fight off disease. The immune system can be viewed as a complex system that may shield against losses of diversity at specific genes. The work generated here will contribute to the understanding of how threatened and endangered species persist in the face of a rapidly changing environment and will help clarify genetic management plans aimed at their recovery.The fellow will answer the proposed questions through bioinformatic and lab experiments focused on Gila trout, (Oncorhynchus gilae), a threatened fish species that has undergone numerous events leading to significant loss of genetic diversity within its populations. Diversity loss has impacted the major histocompatibility locus of the Gila trout, potentially reducing its ability to respond to pathogens via classical adaptive immune responses. The fellow will use the Gila trout genome, tissue archives, and gene sequence libraries to identify, annotate, and evaluate the diversity of innate immune gene families to understand if innate immunity may compensate for reduced adaptive immune capabilities. This will also establish how these immune genes are evolving, and the effects of selection acting upon them. Immune challenge experiments will quantify the magnitude of the overall immune response in Gila trout and the role of innate immune receptors in this species during infection. These two approaches will determine whether overall genetic loss can be compensated via expansion of broadly unspecific arms of the immune system and allow long-term persistence. The fellow will also perform multiple outreach projects including presentations on the importance of habitat conservation, leading undergraduates in museum science programs, and presenting the results of the fellow’s research to relevant conservation agencies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluationThis 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 2022 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，旨在调查基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。 该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。 一个物种的长期生存被认为与该物种的遗传多样性有关。事实上，当前对濒危和受威胁物种的保护工作致力于维持种群内的遗传多样性，以期增加其长期生存的机会。 然而，最近的研究对这一想法提出了挑战。 该研究员试图通过关注免疫系统来了解遗传多样性的丧失如何影响物种的生存，免疫系统使生物体能够抵抗疾病。免疫系统可以被视为一个复杂的系统，可以防止特定基因多样性的丧失。这里的工作将有助于了解受威胁和濒危物种在快速变化的环境中如何持续存在，并将有助于阐明旨在恢复的遗传管理计划。该研究员将通过生​​物信息学和实验室实验来回答提出的问题，重点是吉拉鳟鱼（Oncorhynchus gilae），这是一种受威胁的鱼类，经历了多次事件，导致其种群内遗传多样性显着丧失。 多样性丧失影响了吉拉鳟鱼的主要组织相容性位点，可能降低其通过经典适应性免疫反应应对病原体的能力。该研究员将使用希拉鳟鱼基因组、组织档案和基因序列库来识别、注释和评估先天免疫基因家族的多样性，以了解先天免疫是否可以补偿适应性免疫能力的下降。这还将确定这些免疫基因如何进化，以及选择对它们的影响。 免疫激发实验将量化吉拉鳟鱼整体免疫反应的强度以及该物种在感染过程中先天免疫受体的作用。 这两种方法将确定是否可以通过扩大免疫系统的广泛非特异性臂来补偿总体遗传损失，并允许长期持续。 该研究员还将执行多个外展项目，包括介绍栖息地保护的重要性、带领本科生参与博物馆科学项目，以及向相关保护机构展示该研究员的研究结果。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估被认为值得支持。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。