NSF PRFB FY 2023: Genes on the move: the evolution of horizontal transfer in bacteria

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2023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对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。该项目将重点关注细菌群落，它们在维持生态系统健康以及人类健康和疾病方面发挥着至关重要的作用。具体来说，这项研究旨在调查细菌是如何获得新特性的。将要研究的方法被称为水平基因转移（HGT）。这是细菌的一个重要而又被忽视的方面。这一过程的一个众所周知的例子是不同种类的细菌之间抗生素耐药性的传播。通过这项工作，该研究员将有助于为对抗抗生素耐药性传播的举措提供信息。此外，该研究员还将通过社区外展和指导计划参加激励和吸引下一代科学家的活动。该研究员的研究项目将结合实验和数学模型来揭示通过HGT控制不相关细菌之间基因运动的进化规则。尽管质粒编码的性状对人类、动物和环境健康很重要，但我们对这些重要性状的传播如何受到质粒核心基因的微小变化的影响知之甚少，这些基因有助于质粒通过HGT在细菌之间复制和转移。该研究员的研究项目将集中在各种环境和社区背景下质粒核心基因的进化。具体来说，该项目将创建一个详细的基因型到多维表型图的接合质粒的一部分。这个系统的图谱将探索质粒特定部分的突变如何影响其水平扩散的能力，以及它的细菌宿主的适应性。为了实现这一目标，该项目将开发新的方法，准确地同时测量多种细菌的HGT和生长速度，并利用这些数据建立一个数学模型，预测质粒在不同环境条件下的进化方式。通过揭示细菌群落中基因、宿主和环境之间复杂的相互作用，本研究将促进我们对控制细菌群落生态和进化的基本生物学概念的理解，并有助于对抗抗生素耐药性的传播。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 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. This project will focus on bacterial communities, which play crucial roles in maintaining the health of ecosystems, as well as in human health and disease. Specifically, the research aims to investigate how bacteria acquire new traits. The method that will be investigated is called horizontal gene transfer, or HGT. This is an essential yet overlooked aspect of bacteria. A well-known example of this process is the spread of antibiotic resistance between different species of bacteria. Through this work, the fellow will help to inform initiatives to combat the spread of antibiotic resistance. In addition, the fellow will participate in activities to inspire and engage the next generation of scientists through community outreach and mentorship programs. The fellow’s research program will use a combination of experiments and mathematical modeling to uncover the evolutionary rules governing the movement of genes between unrelated bacteria through HGT. In spite of the importance of plasmid-encoded traits to human, animal, and environmental health, we know little about how the spread of these important traits is affected by small changes in the plasmid’s core genes that help the plasmid replicate and transfer between bacteria by HGT. The fellow’s research program will focus on the evolution of plasmid core genes in various environmental and community contexts. Specifically, the project will create a detailed genotype to multi-dimensional phenotype map for a portion of a conjugative plasmid. This systematic mapping will explore how mutations in specific parts of the plasmid affect both its ability to horizontally spread, and the fitness of its bacterial hosts. To achieve this, the project will develop new methods for accurately and simultaneously measuring HGT and growth rates in multiple species of bacteria and use this data to build a mathematical model that can predict how plasmids will evolve under different environmental conditions. By shedding light on the complex interactions between genes, hosts, and environments in bacterial communities, this research will advance our understanding of fundamental biological concepts governing the ecology and evolution of bacterial communities and aid in combating the spread of antibiotic resistance.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.