Excellence in Research: Evaluating Environmental Stressor Effects on Soil Bacterial Traits

卓越研究：评估环境压力因素对土壤细菌性状的影响

• 批准号: 2302609
• 负责人: Danielle Graham
• 金额: $ 76.92万
• 依托单位: Fayetteville State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2302609&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Excellence; Research; Evaluating; Environmental; Stressor

The goal of this Excellence in Research (EiR) project is to conduct interdisciplinary, collaborative research to investigate how prior environmental nutrient conditions influence bacterial inter- and intraspecific interactions. Specifically, the research will examine how changes in nutrients alter bacterial traits such as the physical features of forming spores and modifying cell walls and genetic features that are responsible for changes to physical features, antibiotic resistance, and soil nutrient access in the context of microbe-microbe and plant-microbe relationships. Results from this work are of broad national interests in agricultural, natural resources management and conservation sectors. This work benefits society through research opportunities at the undergraduate and graduate levels and through shared educational content for grades 6-8 at rural public schools. This research will be integrated with the education of undergraduates at Fayetteville State University (FSU), a Historically Black University focusing on the education of African American students, with high female, and military or military-affiliated student populations. This project will support teaching-research integration capacity through the design, implementation, and assessment of a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) offered at FSU, which will be linked to ongoing CUREs and undergraduate/graduate student-led projects at East Carolina University (ECU). The integration of microbial ecology and biodiversity research will improve the STEM education quality of historically marginalized populations and enhance diversity and training of the STEM workforce. This research will test the hypothesis that long-term nutrient enrichment will result in more competitive (and less mutualistic) bacterial populations (e.g., increased antimicrobial resistance, increased growth rates) compared to the unfertilized counterparts by focusing on three objectives: 1) examining culturable wetland soil bacteria by trait-based phenotypic analyses to understand how ongoing nutrient enrichment influences bacterial traits that are important for resource acquisition, 2) identifying genotypic differences between bacterial isolates from nutrient-rich vs. nutrient-limited environments using comparative genomic approaches, and 3) examining how previous nutrient conditions influence microbe-microbe and plant-microbe interactions by adding bacterial inocula (from fertilized or unfertilized soils) to a wetland grass exposed to a fertilization gradient. The Fayetteville State University and East Carolina University teams will collaboratively conduct comparative genomics and functional lab-based assays. Evaluating bacterial traits in an ecological context will expand our understanding of how resource limitation influences soil microbial trait diversity with consequences for promoting beneficial plant-microbe interactions in agriculture and restoration. Collectively, this research will provide participants the opportunity to generate new knowledge, establish and refine critical thinking skills, and enhance the overall competitiveness of students entering graduate and/or professional school as well as the workforce.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.

该卓越研究 (EiR) 项目的目标是进行跨学科合作研究，以调查先前的环境营养条件如何影响细菌种间和种内相互作用。具体来说，该研究将研究营养物质的变化如何改变细菌性状，例如形成孢子和改变细胞壁的物理特征，以及在微生物-微生物和植物-微生物关系的背景下导致物理特征、抗生素耐药性和土壤养分获取变化的遗传特征。这项工作的成果在农业、自然资源管理和保护领域具有广泛的国家利益。这项工作通过本科生和研究生水平的研究机会以及农村公立学校 6-8 年级的共享教育内容造福社会。这项研究将与费耶特维尔州立大学 (FSU) 的本科生教育相结合，费耶特维尔州立大学是一所历史悠久的黑人大学，专注于非裔美国学生的教育，其中女性学生、军人或军方附属学生人数较多。该项目将通过设计、实施和评估佛罗里达州立大学提供的基于课程的本科生研究经验 (CURE) 来支持教研一体化能力，该项目将与东卡罗来纳大学 (ECU) 正在进行的 CURE 和本科生/研究生主导的项目相关联。微生物生态学和生物多样性研究的整合将提高历史上边缘化人群的 STEM 教育质量，并增强 STEM 劳动力的多样性和培训。本研究将通过关注三个目标来检验这样的假设：与未受精的细菌相比，长期养分富集将导致更具竞争性（且互惠性较低）的细菌种群（例如，增加的抗菌素耐药性、增加的生长速度）：1）通过基于性状的表型分析来检查可培养的湿地土壤细菌，以了解持续的养分富集如何影响细菌性状。 对于资源获取很重要，2）使用比较基因组方法识别来自营养丰富和营养有限环境的细菌分离株之间的基因型差异，3）通过向暴露于施肥梯度的湿地草中添加细菌接种物（来自施肥或未施肥的土壤）来检查先前的营养条件如何影响微生物-微生物和植物-微生物相互作用。费耶特维尔州立大学和东卡罗来纳大学团队将合作进行比较基因组学和基于实验室的功能测定。在生态背景下评估细菌性状将扩大我们对资源限制如何影响土壤微生物性状多样性的理解，从而促进农业和恢复中有益的植物-微生物相互作用。总的来说，这项研究将为参与者提供产生新知识、建立和完善批判性思维技能的机会，并提高进入研究生和/或职业学校的学生以及劳动力的整体竞争力。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。