NSF PRFB FY23: Host-pathogen dynamics in response to resource pulses: nutrients, immunity and disease transmission

这一行动为NSF 2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。在全球范围内，疾病和栖息地的丧失导致生物多样性的丧失。在农业景观中，蜜蜂有时从开花植物中获得的食物较少，可能会暴露在更多的疾病中。然而，大量开花的覆盖作物会产生大量的花，可能会改善蜜蜂的条件。例如，大量开花的农作物增加食物供应可能会改善蜜蜂的营养和抗病能力。此外，大规模开花可能会减少或增加蜜蜂在共享花卉上传播疾病的机会，这可能取决于周围景观中其他非农作物花卉的数量。确定不同的耕作方式可以支持传粉者的环境，可以改善保护工作。本研究将利用一种在农业上具有重要意义的本地蜜蜂--木蜂及其相关病原体，来评估覆盖作物(野豌豆，Vicia villosa)产生的资源脉冲如何与周围环境(丰富的非大规模开花花卉资源，NMBR)相互作用，从而影响蜜蜂免疫、病原体感染和病原体传播。这个家伙将在有或没有大量盛开的紫云英的地点放置薇菜的巢穴。大规模水华和对照处理中的每个地点都将沿着NMBR的梯度存在。为了评估大规模水华对病原体感染的影响，将在整个水华期间对成年蜜蜂进行采样，并在水华结束时对幼虫和花粉供应进行采样，以量化病原体和营养物质。为了评估大规模水华如何影响疾病传播的机会，将在紫云英和NMBR斑块中量化总蜜蜂和受感染的蜜蜂和花朵密度。为了评估大规模水华和NMBR是否影响免疫力，该研究员将在实验室实验中进行免疫挑战，并测量喂食花粉的蜜蜂的免疫基因表达，这些饲料模仿每个地点的花卉资源的质量和数量。通过理清宿主-病原体动力学的景观与分子尺度驱动因素，这项工作将提高病原体何时影响人口和社区的预测能力。该研究员将通过1)培训两名本科生，2)进行生物学包容性教学的培训，以及3)与保护和农业专业人员交流结果和调查申请，来扩大他们的工作影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 2023, 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. Globally, disease and habitat loss lead to biodiversity loss. In agricultural landscapes, bees sometimes have less food from flowering plants and can be exposed to more disease. However, mass blooming cover crops that produce large amounts of flowers could improve conditions for bees. For example, increased food supply from mass blooming crops may improve bee nutrition and disease resistance. Additionally, mass blooms could either reduce or increase chances for bees to spread diseases at shared flowers, likely depending on the amount of other, non-crop flowers in the surrounding landscape. Identifying the contexts in which different farming practices can support pollinators improves conservation efforts. This project asks how non-crop flower abundance affects the extent to which mass blooming cover crops affect bee disease resistance and spread.This research will use an agriculturally important native bee, Osmia lignaria, and its associated pathogens to evaluate how resource pulses from a cover crop (vetch, Vicia villosa) interact with the surrounding landscape (abundance of non-mass bloom floral resources, NMBR) to affect bee immunity, pathogen infection, and pathogen transmission. The fellow will place Osmia lignaria nests at sites manipulated to either have or not have mass blooming vetch. Sites in the mass bloom and control treatments will each exist along a gradient of NMBR. To assess how mass bloom affects pathogen infection, adult bees will be sampled throughout bloom, and larvae and pollen provisions will be sampled at the end of bloom to quantify pathogens and nutrients. To assess how mass bloom affects opportunities for disease transmission, total and infected bee and flower density will be quantified in vetch and NMBR patches. To assess whether mass bloom and NMBR affect immunity, the fellow will conduct an immune challenge and measure immune gene expression in bees fed pollen from diets that mimic the quality and quantity of floral resources at each site, in laboratory experiments. By disentangling landscape- versus molecular-scale drivers of host-pathogen dynamics, this work will improve predictive power of when pathogens affect populations and communities. The fellow will extend the impact of their work by 1) training two undergraduate students, 2) conducting trainings on inclusive teaching in Biology, and 3) communicating results and investigating applications with conservation and agricultural professionals.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.