From Cells to Societies: Mechanisms by Which Microbial Parasites Control Host Phenotypes

从细胞到社会：微生物寄生虫控制宿主表型的机制

• 批准号: 9010098
• 负责人: Danny Ziyi Chen
• 金额: $ 35.52万
• 依托单位: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-02-01 至 2021-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9010098
• 关键词: Acoustics; Affect; Algorithms; Animal Behavior; Animals; Ants; Behavior; Behavior Control; Birds; Bite; Brain; Brazil; Cardiovascular system; Cell model; Cells; Collaborations; Complex; Computer Simulation; Computer Vision Systems; Computers; Control Animal; Data; Diffusion; Engineering; Ensure; Face; Fishes; Floor; Gene Expression; Goals; Head; Human; Imagery; Lead; Left; Longitudinal Studies; Machine Learning; Measurement; Measures; Mechanics; Microbe; Modeling; Movement; Muscle; Parasite Control; Parasites; Phenotype; Positioning Attribute; Production; Reproduction spores; Research; Research Personnel; Role; Scanning Electron Microscopy; Scientist; Site; Social Behavior; Societies; System; Technology; Testing; Time; Work; acoustic imaging; base; behavior measurement; biological systems; cancer cell; cell behavior; computational network modeling; data modeling; forest; fungus; insight; killings; microbial; model development; nanoscale; public health relevance; research study; social; success; three-dimensional modeling; tool; transmission process

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Microbes can be social. In some groups of microbes that have parasitic lifecycles the social behavior of the many microbial cells can lead to the precise control of the animal they infect. The microbes orchestrate within the body and coordinate to form interactions that are as impressive as any other collective behavior from fish shoals to flocks of birds to ant trails. In some biological systems the manipulated animal is an ant and therefore belongs to its own collective, the colony. In our system we study the `zombie-ant' fungi (Ophiocordyceps) of tropical and temperate forests, which precisely control ants to leave their nest and bite into vegetation directly over the foraging trails of the colony. The function of such altered behavior becomes apparent when the fungus kills the ant and grows a stalk from its head that shoots out spores that infect other ants. The goal of this application is o develop models of such complex collective behavior by fungi controlling ants. We will develop computational and physical diffusion models of the development of the fungal collective, within its ant host. We will use high throughput Scanning Electron Microscopy of ant muscles and computer vision algorithms to develop 3D computational models and accurate networks of cells. We will perform micro-acoustic fluidic experiments to measure fungal behavior and develop physical diffusion models of the emergence of collective behavior. At the macroscopic scale we will measure infected ant behavior in the forest and build agent-based models to determine the rules explaining the effective targeting of ant trails by the fungal collective using the ant as a vehicle. Finally, we will perform experiments to understand the role of competition for the social behavior of microbes. This work is a collaboration among David Hughes, an expert of animal behavior and parasites, Ephraim Hanks, an expert on models of animal behavior, Danny Chen, a computer scientist expert in 3D models of cells, Francesco Costanzo, a theoretical mechanical expert in physical diffusion models and Tony Huang, an engineer expert in micro-acoustic fluidic experiments. Extensive collaboration already exists among the five researchers and four of the five occupy the same building at Penn State, ensuring an easy collaboration.

 描述（由适用提供）：微生物可以是社交。在一些具有寄生生命周期的微生物中，许多微生物细胞的社会行为可以导致对他们感染的动物的精确控制。微生物在体内进行编排，并协调形成相互作用，这些相互作用与从鱼鞋到鸟类群到蚂蚁小径的任何其他集体行为一样令人印象深刻。在某些生物学系统中，操纵动物是蚂蚁，因此属于其自身的集体殖民地。在我们的系统中，我们研究了热带和温度森林的“僵尸 - ant”真菌（Ophiocordyceps），这些真菌精确地控制了蚂蚁将其巢留下并直接在群落的觅食径上咬入植被。当真菌杀死蚂蚁并从其头部从其头部射出孢子的孢子中，这种改变的行为的功能变得显而易见。该应用程序的目的是开发我们将在其蚂蚁宿主内开发真菌集体开发的计算和物理差异模型。我们将使用蚂蚁肌肉和计算机视觉算法的高吞吐量扫描电子显微镜来开发3D计算模型和细胞的准确网络。我们将执行微观流体实验，以测量真菌行为并发展集体行为出现的物理差异模型。在宏观量表上，我们将测量森林和基于建筑物的模型中的受感染的蚂蚁行为，以确定规则解释了使用ANT作为车辆的真菌集体对蚂蚁小径的有效靶向。最后，我们将进行实验，以了解竞争对微生物的社会行为的作用。这项工作是动物行为和寄生虫的专家戴维·休斯（David Hughes），动物行为模型的专家以法莲·汉克斯（Ephraim Hanks）。在宾夕法尼亚州立大学占据了同一座建筑物中的五名研究人员中，已经存在广泛的合作，从而确保了轻松的合作。