Global phylo-epidemiology Vibrio parahaemolyticus within a context of climate change

副溶血性弧菌（Vibrio parahaemolyticus，Vp）是一种海洋细菌，广泛分布于世界各地的沿海环境中。在全球范围内，这种病原体是细菌性海产品传播感染的主要原因。VP相关感染的地理分布在过去20年中随着气候变暖而在全球范围内扩大。确定的这一疾病扩展过程的一个关键驱动因素是从局部限制性菌株引起的感染转变为流行性克隆类型的激增和跨大陆扩展。这些现代的扩张提供了一个特殊的机会来研究这种病原体的进化过程的第一手资料，并了解与这些新出现的病原体相关的疾病的流行动力学形成的机制。这个博士项目将确定驱动这些病原体出现，传播和成功引入新地区的因素，促进感染的全球传播。关于这些致病性环境细菌的传播，传播和建立的关键特征存在几个基本的未知数-例如弧菌如何在非流行地区出现以及气候变化如何影响这些过程。这个博士项目的主要目标是生成Vp不同遗传变异的地理分布的全球地图，并将这些分布与推动这些遗传变异进化和传播的物理化学海洋环境联系起来。

Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) is a marine bacterium and a natural inhabitant of coastal environments worldwide. Globally, this pathogen is the leading cause of bacterial seafood-borne infections. The geographical distribution of Vp-associated infections has undergone a global expansion over the last 2 decades in phase with climate warming. A key driving factor identified for this process of disease expansion has been the transition from infections caused by locally-restricted strains to the surge and transcontinental expansion of epidemic clonal types. These modern expansions provide an exceptional opportunity to study the evolutionary process of this pathogen first-hand and to understand the mechanisms shaping the epidemic dynamics of diseases associated with these emerging pathogens. This PhD project will determine the factors that drive the emergence, dispersal and successful introduction of these pathogens into new regions, facilitating the global spread of infections. Several fundamental unknowns exist on key features regarding the transmission, dissemination and establishment of these pathogenic environmental bacteria - such as how vibrios emerge in non-endemic areas and how climate change may influence these processes. The primary objective of this PhD project will be to generate a global map of the geographical distribution of the different genetic variants of Vp and to relate these distributions to the physicochemical marine environments that have driven the evolution and spread of these genetic variants.