Collaborative Research: Host ocular microbiome and pathogen dynamics: from individual to population-level effects in a songbird

动物体内有许多微生物，这些微生物对宿主起着关键的有益作用，包括保护宿主免受疾病侵袭。虽然许多微生物的有益作用已经确定，但尚不清楚这些益处如何扩大到整个种群，并影响人群中的疾病爆发。这个奖项的重点是一种常见的鸣鸟--家雀--的一种传染性红眼疾病。雀类眼睛中的有益细菌可以保护鸟类免受严重红眼的侵袭。该项目研究感染剂量如何影响有益细菌保护鸟类免受疾病侵袭的能力，以及眼睛上的有益细菌是否可以防止或减缓这种高传染性疾病在禽类中的传播。这项研究的发现将对了解野生动物、家畜和人类中的传染病暴发具有重要意义。研究人员将让本科生和研究生使用新的基因组学工具来识别有益的微生物。以这个研究系统和其他系统为例，项目人员将与西弗吉尼亚州科学博物馆合作，设计一个永久性的、互动的“友好微生物”展览，展示微生物使宿主受益的许多方式。弗吉尼亚理工大学的研究生将学习如何通过协助展品设计和与展品相关的夏季研讨会来更好地传播科学。微生物组如何调节种群水平的疾病传播取决于共生体在自然感染剂量范围内如何发挥宿主防御功能，以及共生体如何修改传播过程中的“捐赠”和“接收”病原体。该奖项利用一种易于处理的野生动物疾病系统--一种最近出现的家雀结膜疾病--调查了眼部微生物群对疾病动力学的个体到种群水平的影响。使用一套机械工具和实验方法，这个项目将：1)测试病原体定植剂量如何调节驻留的眼微生物群对个体雀类的保护作用；2)确定眼微生物群如何影响成对传播期间捐献与接收结膜病原体的可能性；以及3)量化宿主眼微生物群对群水平传染病动态的流行病学影响。研究人员将研究微生物共生体如何改变与传播相关的宿主和病原体表型，并揭示共生体-病原体-宿主相互作用的机制，这些机制最有可能影响种群水平的疾病动态。该奖项将为本科生和研究生提供全人群微生物组研究以及科学交流方面的培训。研究人员将在当地博物馆开发一个关于微生物有益作用的新的永久展览，并主办研讨会，以促进关于这一主题的科学素养。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Animals harbor many microbes that serve key beneficial roles for their hosts, including protection from disease. While the beneficial roles of many microbes are well established, it is not yet known how these benefits scale up to an entire population and influence disease outbreaks in populations. This award focuses on a contagious 'pink- eye' disease of a common songbird, the house finch. Beneficial bacteria in the eyes of finches can protect birds from developing severe 'pink-eye'. This project examines how the dose of infection impacts the ability of beneficial bacteria to protect birds against disease, and whether beneficial bacteria on the eye can prevent or slow down the spread of this highly contagious disease within a flock of birds. Findings of this research will have important implications for understanding infectious disease outbreaks in wildlife, domestic animals, and humans. Investigators will engage undergraduate and graduate students in the use of new genomics tools to identify beneficial microbes. Using this study system and others as examples, project personnel will work with the Science Museum of Western Virginia to design a permanent, interactive 'Friendly Microbes' exhibit that illustrates the many ways that microbes benefit their hosts. Graduate students at Virginia Tech will learn how to better communicate science by assisting with the exhibit design and summer workshops associated with the exhibit. How the microbiome modulates population-level disease spread depends on how symbionts function in host defense across the natural range of infectious doses, as well as how both 'donating' and 'receiving' the pathogen during transmission is modified by symbionts. This award investigates individual to population-level effects of the ocular microbiome on disease dynamics using a tractable wildlife disease system: a recently emerged conjunctival disease of house finches. Using a suite of mechanistic tools and experimental approaches, this project will: 1) test how pathogen colonization dose mediates the protective role of the resident ocular microbiome for individual finches; 2) determine how the ocular microbiome influences the likelihood of donating versus receiving a conjunctival pathogen during pairwise transmission; and 3) quantify the epidemiological impact of the host ocular microbiome on flock-level infectious disease dynamics. Researchers will examine how microbial symbionts alter both host and pathogen phenotypes relevant for transmission and reveal mechanisms of symbiont-pathogen-host interactions that are most likely to influence population-level disease dynamics. The award will provide training to undergraduate and graduate students in population-wide microbiome research as well as scientific communication. Researchers will develop a new, permanent exhibit at the local museum on the beneficial role of microbes and host workshops to promote scientific literacy on this topic.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.