Collaborative Research: Community composition and disease outcomes in a multihost-parasite system

随着传染病在野生动物和人类群体中的发病率不断上升，对疾病生态学的研究变得越来越重要。然而，我们对自然系统中的病原体和寄生虫的理解往往是从复杂的生态群落中抽象出来的，而疾病动态实际上是在这些生态群落中发生的。最近的证据表明，生物群落中不同物种的存在/缺失和相对丰度可以显著影响宿主-寄生虫相互作用的结果。然而，改变群落的组成可能导致疾病风险的增加或减少，并且在很少的系统中对这些结果的机制进行了实验研究。本研究将在一个由蜗牛、两栖动物和吸虫组成的复杂宿主-寄生虫系统中实验研究群落组成在调节疾病结果中的作用。一系列的实验将探讨寄生宿主的组成和相对丰度的变化如何影响多宿主、多寄生感染阶段和非宿主竞争对手的感染。该提案将在弗吉尼亚理工大学和雷德福大学（Radford University，距离弗吉尼亚理工大学25公里的一所本科院校）的pi实验室之间建立一个合作研究项目，为两所院校的学生提供更广泛的教育经验。弗吉尼亚理工大学和雷德福大学之间的合作包括合作研究项目、联合实验室会议，以及对弗吉尼亚理工大学研究生和两所大学本科生研究的支持。此外，将根据研究结果为Radford大学生态学和寄生虫学课程开发一个关于宿主-寄生虫相互作用的教学模块，并将向更广泛的教学界传播。

As the incidence of infectious diseases in both wildlife and human populations continues to rise, studies addressing the ecology of disease are becoming more important. Too often, though, our understanding of pathogens and parasites in natural systems develops from studies abstracted from the complex ecological communities in which disease dynamics actually play out. Recent evidence suggests that the presence/absence and relative abundance of different species in the biological community can substantially influence the outcome of host-parasite interactions. However, changing the composition of the community can result in either an increase or decrease in disease risk, and the mechanisms responsible for these outcomes have been experimentally investigated in very few systems. This research will experimentally investigate the role of community composition in modulating disease outcomes in a complex host-parasite system composed of snails, amphibians, and a trematode parasite. A series of experiments will address how infection of parasite hosts is influenced by changes in the composition and relative abundance of multiple hosts, multiple parasite infectious stages and non-host competitors.This proposal will establish a collaborative research program between the laboratories of the PIs at Virginia Tech and Radford University (a predominately undergraduate institution 25 km from Virginia Tech) that will provide broader educational experiences for the students at both institutions. The partnership between Virginia Tech and Radford University includes collaborative research projects, joint laboratory meetings, and support of graduate students at Virginia Tech and undergraduate student research at both universities. In addition, a teaching module on host-parasite interactions based on the research results will be developed for Ecology and Parasitology courses at Radford University and will be disseminated to the broader teaching community.