NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Microbial Interactions across Trophic Scales and their Contributions to Host Phenotype in a Carnivore Model

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2022财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式为《生活规则》领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。栖息在动物体内的数万亿微生物，统称为微生物群，对动物的生态和健康至关重要。这项研究探讨了环境（土壤、水或饮食）中的微生物是否有助于一种濒危食肉动物——黑足雪貂体内动物相关微生物群的形成。在雪貂被重新引入自然栖息地的过程中研究这些动态也将测试微生物关系是否会影响雪貂在野外的健康、繁殖和整体生存。除了提供微生物在动物-环境相互作用中的作用的有价值的生态数据外，本研究还将为其他濒危动物的保护策略提供应用价值。该研究员将与史密森尼国家动物园和保护生物学研究所（NZP-SCBI）合作开展这项研究，并向公众和保护团体传播研究结果；这将使广泛和多样化的受众认识到微生物组在动物生态学和保护中的重要性。拓展范围将包括华盛顿特区大都会地区在STEM学科中代表性不足的K-12学生。该研究验证了一种假设，即来自外部来源的微生物通过被纳入并持续存在于宿主相关微生物群中而成为“纪念品微生物”，并且这些微生物最终影响宿主表型。使用扩增子和霰弹枪宏基因组测序（使用微生物来源跟踪软件），研究员将(1)表征土壤、水和猎物肠道和皮肤群落中的外部微生物组；(2)量化这些群落对雪貂肠道微生物组的组成和功能的贡献（从而识别纪念品微生物）；(3)使用实验方法（包括粪便微生物群移植）来测试纪念品微生物是否在雪貂微生物群中持续存在并影响表型（例如免疫标记物、消化功能和病原体负荷）。该研究以三种黑足雪貂种群（圈养、半野生和野生）为研究对象，评估不同种群和不同时间的环境条件对纪念品微生物的影响。该研究员将在新西兰理工大学- scbi的保护基因组学中心和营养科学系接受联合指导，提供跨学科的培训方法，以扩展研究员的知识，提供整合微生物生态学和动物生理学的新技能，并促进科学交流和推广。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。

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 trillions of microbes that inhabit animals’ bodies, collectively known as microbiomes, are vital to animal ecology and health. This research explores whether microbes from the environment (soil, water, or dietary items) can contribute to the formation of animal-associated microbiomes in an endangered carnivore: the black-footed ferret. Studying these dynamics in ferrets undergoing reintroduction to natural habitats will also test whether microbial relationships impact the ferret’s health, reproduction, and overall survival in the wild. In addition to providing valuable ecological data on the role of microbes in animal-environment interactions, this research will have applied value in informing conservation strategies for other endangered animals. The Fellow will be working with the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute (NZP-SCBI) to conduct this research as well as to disseminate the results to the public and conservation groups; this will bring awareness of the importance of microbiomes in animal ecology and conservation to a broad and diverse audience. Outreach will include K-12 students in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area who are underrepresented in STEM disciplines.This research tests the hypothesis that microbes from external sources become ‘souvenir microbes’ by being incorporated into and persisting within host-associated microbiomes and that these microbes ultimately affect host phenotype. Using amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing (with microbial source tracking software) the Fellow will (1) characterize external microbiomes in soil, water, and prey gut and skin consortia; (2) quantify the contributions of these communities to the composition and function of ferret gut microbiomes (thereby identifying souvenir microbes); and (3) use experimental approaches (including fecal microbiota transplants) to test whether souvenir microbes persist in ferret microbiomes and influence phenotypes (e.g., immune markers, digestive function, and pathogen load). The research focuses on three black-footed ferret populations (captive, semi-wild, and wild) to assess how souvenir microbes are influenced by different environmental conditions among populations and over time. The Fellow will be jointly mentored at NZP-SCBI’s Center for Conservation Genomics and Department of Nutrition Science, providing an interdisciplinary training approach that will expand the Fellow’s knowledge, provide novel skills that integrate microbial ecology and animal physiology, and promote science communication and outreach.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.