RoL: NSFDEB-BSF: Studying the evolution of the antiviral pathway in a cnidarian model interacting with diverse viral communities

病毒和动物的免疫系统在相互反应中进化。动物有不同的分子机制来检测和破坏不同的病毒。尽管病毒对所有动物都造成了巨大的损失，但无脊椎动物，特别是海洋物种，如何应对和适应病毒群落的研究却比较有限。了解病毒群落对海洋无脊椎动物的影响的局限性是由于对病毒在不同种群中如何变化以及宿主在控制病毒群落中利用的免疫系统的精确机制的不完全理解。研究小组将利用海葵（Nematostella vectensis）在实验室和现场研究宿主免疫，以表征这种共生关系的生态和进化动态。该项目将与Yehu Moran博士（以色列耶路撒冷希伯来大学）进行协同国际合作，将刺胞动物的生态和共生与抗病毒反应的分子机制联系起来。这项研究将为北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校的一名博士后以及研究生和本科生提供指导和培训。通过扩大基于SEA-PHAGES课程的本科研究经验（CURE）和通过北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校新的微生物基因组学中心的外展，将提供额外的研究和教育机会。了解参与调节抗病毒途径表达的环境、遗传和分子因素对于理解和预测任何宿主物种对不同病毒群落的反应是至关重要的。该项目的综合研究方法将确定生境的生物和非生物特征的变化如何与刺胞动物宿主抗病毒反应表达的变化相关。研究小组将使用比较基因组学来检测阳性选择的特征，方法是比较北美原生和引进的线虫病种群的病毒组和转录组。然后，他们将结合中观和实验室研究，通过结合有机体和基因表达研究，量化海葵对特定病毒群落的局部适应程度。他们将采用转基因方法结合实验室和中观研究来描述抗病毒反应的单个成分如何对不同的病毒群落产生反应和介导暴露。国际研究团队利用线虫病作为生态与进化基因组学的模型，通过转基因方法了解这种无脊椎动物的遗传多样性、核苷酸变异在局部适应中的作用以及局灶基因的功能。预计该项目将通过确定暴露于不同病毒的人群中这些抗病毒机制的演变以及在易受持续气候变化影响的异质生境中检测和破坏病毒的机制，产生重大影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Viruses and the immune systems of animals evolve in response to each other. Animals have various molecular mechanisms for detection and destruction of diverse viruses. Despite viruses exerting tremendous costs to all animals, how invertebrates, particularly marine species, respond and adapt to virus communities has received more limited research. The limitations for understanding the impact of viral communities on marine invertebrates results from an incomplete understanding of how viruses vary over different populations as well as the precise mechanisms of the immune system that the host utilizes in controlling their viral community. The research team will utilize a sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis) to study host immunity in the laboratory and the field to characterize the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of this symbiosis. This project will provide a synergistic international collaboration with Dr. Yehu Moran (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) to connect the ecology and symbioses of cnidarians with the molecular mechanisms of antiviral responses. This research will provide mentoring and training for a postdoctoral fellow as well as graduate and undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Additional research and educational opportunities will be provided through expansion of a SEA-PHAGES course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) and outreach through a new Center for Microbial Genomics at UNC Charlotte. Knowledge of the environmental, genetic, and molecular factors involved in modulating expression of antiviral pathways is essential to understand and predict how any host species will respond to diverse viral communities. The integrative research approach in this project will determine how shifts in the biotic and abiotic features of habitats correlate with changes in the expression of the antiviral response for a cnidarian host. The research team will use comparative genomics to detect signatures of positive selection by comparing the viromes and transcriptomes of populations of Nematostella vectensis across its native and introduced geographic range in North America. They will then use a combination of mesocosm and laboratory studies to quantify the extent of local adaptation of the anemone to specific viral communities through a combination of organismal and gene expression studies. They will employ a combination of transgenic approaches combined with laboratory and mesocosm studies to characterize how individual components of the antiviral response respond and mediate exposure to a diverse viral community. Nematostella vectensis has been utilized as a model for the ecological and evolutionary genomics by the international research team to understand the genetic diversity of this invertebrate, the role for nucleotide variation in local adaptation, and the function of focal genes through transgenic approaches. This project is expected to have a significant impact by identifying the evolution of these antiviral mechanisms in populations with exposure to different viruses and the mechanisms for viral detection and destruction in heterogeneous habitats that are vulnerable to the ongoing climate change.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.