RAPID: A matter of life or death: Identifying factors that regulate susceptibility or resistance of bay scallops to an emergent coccidian parasite

海湾扇贝是纽约州和该地区沿海地区最重要的经济和生态物种之一。2019年夏秋季节，长岛东部90%的扇贝死亡，而这恰逢一种未被描述的寄生虫出现，这种寄生虫破坏了受感染动物的肾脏。遗传分析表明，该寄生虫属于球虫亚类，该病原体现在被命名为海湾扇贝球虫或BSC。这个项目将确定BSC如何感染和杀死扇贝，以及为什么一些扇贝对感染或死亡具有抵抗力。这项研究的结果促进了科学的进步，因为研究将确定扇贝中宿主和寄生虫相互作用的调节机制，并可能帮助我们了解其他球虫如何在经济上重要的系统中导致疾病。它促进了国家的繁荣和生物经济，因为结果有助于扇贝农民和生态学家防止或最大限度地减少这种重要的经济作物的死亡。这项研究还将提供工具，使广泛的研究社区能够研究无脊椎动物的顶复合体寄生虫。该提案还利用资金培养博士后，并利用研究生和本科生培养下一代科学家。这项工作的预期结果将有助于在纽约水域恢复海湾扇贝，并将作为参考，如果BSC传播到美国其他沿海地区。尽管无脊椎动物感染球虫的共同性质，但人们对这些微生物的生物学和控制感染成功的因素知之甚少。这一快速反应将使用正在进行的流行病来产生所需的信息，以确定感染海湾扇贝(BSC)的球虫的生态和经济上的重要成员的特征。这项研究将结合高通量测序技术(基因组和RNA测序)、传统细胞技术(寄生虫纯化、原代细胞培养)和分子生物学方法来表征BSC，并探索寄生虫生命阶段和扇贝健康之间的关系；评估疾病将如何随着夏季条件的到来而发展，这些条件被认为是海湾扇贝的压力；并确定哪些遗传和环境因素区分耐受和敏感的扇贝。新的数据有望解决一直阻碍理解海洋无脊椎动物BSCs存活和疾病机制的信息鸿沟。此外，从这项工作中获得的遗传信息可以作为开发诊断工具的基础，以识别未来的BSC感染和暴发，这有助于生物经济。这项研究将确定扇贝中调节宿主和寄生虫相互作用的机制，并可能帮助我们了解其他球虫如何在经济上重要的系统中导致疾病。这项研究还将提供工具，使广泛的研究社区能够研究无脊椎动物的顶复合体寄生虫。该奖项还用于培养博士后、研究生和本科生，以培训下一代STEM研究人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The bay scallop, Argopecten irradians irradians, is one of the most economically and ecologically important species in coastal areas of New York State and the region. In summer/fall 2019, 90% of the scallops in eastern Long Island died, and this coincided with the emergence of an undescribed parasite that disrupts the kidney of infected animals. Genetic analysis showed that the parasite belongs to the Coccidia subclass of parasites, and this pathogen is now designated bay scallop Coccidia or BSC. This project will identify how BSC infects and kills scallops, and why some scallops are resistant to infection or death. Results from this study promotes the progress of science because research will identify mechanisms that regulate host-parasite interactions in scallops, and may help us understand how other Coccidia cause disease in economically important systems. It advances the national prosperity and the bioeconomy because results help scallop farmers and ecologists prevent or minimize death of this economically-important crop. This research will also provide tools to enable a broad research community working on apicomplexan parasites of invertebrates. This proposal also uses funding to train a post-doc, and graduate and undergraduate students to train the next generation of scientists. Results expected from this work will facilitate the recovery of bay scallops in New York waters, and will serve as a reference if BSC spreads to other coastal regions in the USA.Despite the common nature of Coccidia infection in invertebrates, very little is known about the biology of these microorganisms and the factors that regulate infection success. This RAPID will use an ongoing epizootic to generate information needed to characterize an ecologically- and economically-important member of the Coccidia that infects bay scallop (BSC). The study will use a combination of high-throughput sequencing techniques (genome and RNA sequencing), traditional cellular techniques (parasite purification, primary cell culture), and molecular biology methods to characterize BSC and probe the relationship between parasite life stages and scallop health; to evaluate how the disease will develop with the onset of summer conditions, conditions thought to be stressful to bay scallops; and to determine what genetic and environmental factors differentiate resistant scallops from susceptible ones. The new data are expected to solve an information gap that has been hampering the understanding of the mechanisms of survival and disease of BSCs in marine invertebrates. Moreover, the genetic information obtained from this work can be the basis for developing diagnostic tools to identify BSC infections and outbreaks in the future, which helps the bioecomony. This research will identify mechanisms that regulate host-parasite interactions in scallops, and may help us understand how other Coccidia cause disease in economically important systems. This research will also provide tools to enable a broad research community working on apicomplexan parasites of invertebrates. This award also uses funding to train a post-doc, and graduate and undergraduate students to train the next generation of STEM researchers.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.