BBSRC-NSF/BIO: The impact of public vs private metabolism on the stability of microbial communities within natural hosts

该项目增强了对不同微生物物种如何合作共享营养的理解。它增加了制定有效战略所需的知识基础，以打击利用合作相互作用感染植物，动物和人类的病原体。通过结合经验性实验工作和严格的计算模型，该研究调查了对有限营养素的竞争如何影响微生物群落的组成，稳定性和功能。解决这个问题需要学生根据跨学科的方法进行培训，该方法结合了合成生物学，微生物种群生态学，分子生物学和数学建模。该项目正在培养一名研究生和至少两名本科生在微生物系统生物学的尖端实验和计算方法。研究成果正在整合到研究生和本科生课程中，包括最近由首席研究员开发的数学建模课程。为了扩大参与和增强多样性，利用NSF资助的妇女和少数民族学生计划来确定和招聘项目人员。该项目是马萨诸塞州阿默斯特大学（美国）和埃克塞特大学（英国）的研究人员之间的合作。不同微生物物种的复杂群落在自然生态系统的正常运作以及它们所栖息的植物、动物和人类宿主的健康方面发挥着至关重要的作用。为了生存和生长，微生物必须从环境中获得有限的营养。代谢相互作用如营养竞争是微生物群落形成、稳定和发挥功能的关键。营养物质的获取通常涉及到昂贵的代谢化合物的分泌，这些化合物捕获或分解外部环境中的资源。这种被称为“公共代谢”的合作策略是有风险的，因为分解产物可能会丢失到环境中或被其他物种利用。初步数据支持这一假设，即涉及公共或私人代谢的营养获取策略代表了两种相反的生存方法，其成功取决于环境。该项目的目标是通过将实验和计算方法相结合应用于两个涉及环境酵母酿酒酵母和植物病原体Magnaporthe magnaporthe的易于处理的合成系统来测试这一假设。该项目将进行体外和植物实验，并通过数学建模，从特定系统的观察中得出关于微生物相互作用和群落稳定性的一般性结论。该项目由美国国家科学基金会和英国生物技术研究所生物技术和生物科学研究理事会支持。该项目在美国国家科学基金会内共同进行。该奖项由分子和细胞生物科学部的系统和合成生物学集群以及综合有机系统部的综合生态生理学计划资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估，被认为值得支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This project generates enhanced understanding of how different microbial species cooperatively share nutrients. It adds to the knowledge base required to develop effective strategies to combat pathogens that exploit cooperative interactions to infect plants, animal and humans. By combining empirical experimental work and rigorous computational modelling, the research investigates how competition for limited nutrients influences the composition, stability and functioning of microbial communities. Tackling this problem requires students to be trained according to an interdisciplinary approach that combines synthetic biology, microbial population ecology, molecular biology and mathematical modeling. This project is training one graduate student and at least two undergraduate students in cutting-edge experimental and computational methods in microbial systems biology. The research results are being integrated into graduate and undergraduate classes, including a mathematical modeling course recently developed by the principal investigator. To broaden participation and enhance diversity, NSF-funded programs for women and minorities students are leveraged to identify and recruit project personnel. This project is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (US) and the University of Exeter (UK). Complex communities of diverse microbial species play essential roles in the proper functioning of natural ecosystems and the health of plant, animal and human hosts which they inhabit. To survive and grow, microbes must acquire limited nutrients from their environment. Metabolic interactions such as nutrient competition are key to the formation, stability and functioning of microbial communities. Nutrient acquisition frequently involves secretion of costly metabolic compounds that capture or breakdown resources in the external environment. This cooperative strategy, termed “public metabolism”, is risky as the breakdown products can be lost into the environment or exploited by other species. Preliminary data support the hypothesis that nutrient acquisition strategies involving either public or private metabolism represent two opposing approaches to survival, the success of which is environment dependent. The goal of this project is to test this hypothesis by applying a combination of experimental and computational approaches to two tractable synthetic systems involving the environmental yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the plant pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. Both in vitro and in planta experiments will be performed and mathematically modeled to yield general conclusions about microbial interactions and community stability from system-specific observations.This collaborative US/UK project is supported by the US National Science Foundation and the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.Within the US National Science Foundation this project is co-funded by the Systems and Synthetic Biology cluster in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and the Integrative Ecological Physiology program in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems.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.