EID: Microbial Community Ecology of Tick-Borne Human Pathogens

该项目的目标是调查扁虱内的微生物相互作用，以及这些相互作用如何影响人类病原体的流行。在美国，扁虱是由节肢动物媒介传播的传染病的主要来源，包括莱姆病、落基山斑点热病和许多其他新发现的和新出现的人类疾病。扁虱还携带多种非致病性共生细菌。随着强大的分子工具的出现，大多数微生物的多样性才变得明显起来。初步证据表明，这些共生体可以排除病原体，降低人类疾病风险。利用分子遗传学方法，将对医学上重要的扁虱物种的微生物群落进行量化，并将应用统计测试来测试微生物相互作用的强度和方向。此外，微生物相互作用将被纳入流行病学模型，以确定扁虱内微生物相互干扰或放大的条件。这项研究的结果将有助于全面了解微生物相互作用如何影响病原体流行、疾病流行病学和人类疾病风险。这项研究还将探索量化病原体种群和微生物群落的新技术，并为本科生、研究生和博士后水平的科学教育做出重大贡献。其他节肢动物病媒体内的微生物相互作用(如蚊子、跳蚤、虱子、虫子)很可能是常见的，包括越来越多的新出现的人类疾病和病原体的病媒，这些病原体被确定为生物恐怖主义威胁。

The goal of this project is to investigate microbial interactions within ticks and how those interactions affect the prevalence of human pathogens. Ticks are the primary source of infectious disease transmitted by arthropod vectors in the United States, including Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and many other newly-recognized and emerging human diseases. Ticks also carry a variety of non-pathogenic symbiotic bacteria. Most of this microbial diversity has only become apparent with the advent of powerful molecular tools. Preliminary evidence suggests that these symbionts can exclude pathogens, reducing human disease risk. Using molecular genetic methods, the microbial communities of medically-important tick species will be quantified and statistical tests will be applied to test the strength and direction of microbial interactions. In addition, microbial interactions will be incorporated into epidemiological models to determine conditions where microorganisms within ticks interfere with or amplify one another.The results of this research will contribute to a general understanding of how microbial interactions affect pathogen prevalence, disease epidemiology, and human disease risk. This research will also explore new techniques for quantifying pathogen populations and microbial communities, and contribute significantly to scientific education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels. Microbial interactions within other arthropod vectors (e.g., mosquitoes, fleas, lice, bugs) are likely to be common, including vectors of an ever-growing list of emerging human diseases and pathogens identified as bioterrorism threats.