NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021:Parasitism-induced changes in host behavior across scales: linking molecular basis to community impacts

这一行动为NSF 2021财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。不同的动物物种通过自我用药来应对寄生虫感染，寻找降低感染严重程度或持续时间的资源。然而，我们对自我用药行为的分子驱动因素知之甚少，也不知道自我用药行为是如何扩大到影响“药物”资源物种的种群的。这位研究员的研究将通过研究大黄蜂对一种常见的、具有生态重要性的肠道寄生虫Crithidia ombi感染的反应来解决这些问题。通过这样做，这位研究员将建立一个框架，以了解寄生虫感染是如何在从生物分子到个人再到社区的组织规模上运作的，并将有助于理解克里迪亚对大黄蜂授粉的影响。该项目将首先确定克里迪亚病毒感染如何改变熊蜂觅食相关基因的表达，方法是对感染和未感染蜜蜂的大脑和肠道组织进行比较转录组分析，允许它们在不同的药用次生代谢物浓度之间进行选择。然后，将利用圈养蜜蜂的实验室选择实验来确定受感染蜜蜂增加花蜜消耗的行为机制(即偏好和辨别力降低)，这些花蜜中含有大量的药用次生代谢物。最后，用感染和未感染的微集落进行帐篷实验，提供一个田间现实的花卉群落，其中包括不同化学类型的百里香植物，将测试寄生诱导的觅食变化是否对两种百里香(百里香)化学类型(一种具有高花蜜浓度的药用次生代谢物，另一种具有低浓度)具有不同的适合性结果。蜜蜂的觅食行为和百里香种子产量将在因子2x2感染状态×植物化学类型设计中进行跨处理比较。通过这个项目，这位研究员将发展转录学、化学生态学和行为生态学的关键技能。该研究员还将开发和提供相关的教育推广活动，让中学生参与到科学和保护中来。这一奖项反映了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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Diverse animal species respond to parasite infection with self-medication, seeking out resources that reduce the severity or duration of infection. Yet we know little about the molecular drivers of self-medicating behaviors, or about how self-medicating behavior scale up to affect populations of the ‘medicinal’ resource species. The fellow’s research will tackle these questions by studying the response of bumble bees to infection by a common and ecologically important gut parasite, Crithidia bombi. In doing so, the fellow will develop a framework for understanding how parasite infection operates across scales of organization from the biomolecule, to the individual, to the community, and will also contribute to understanding of the effects of Crithidia on bumble bee pollination. The project will first determine how Crithidia infection alters foraging-related gene expression in bumble bees, using comparative transcriptome analysis of brain and gut tissues from infected and uninfected bees allowed to choose between nectar solutions that differ in ‘medicinal’ secondary metabolite concentration. Then, laboratory choice experiments with captive bees will be used to determine the behavioral mechanism (i.e. preference vs. reduced discernment) underlying increased consumption of nectar high in ‘medicinal’ secondary metabolites by infected bees. Finally, tent experiments with infected and uninfected microcolonies, provisioned with a field-realistic floral community that includes thyme plants of distinct chemotypes, will test whether parasitism-induced changes to foraging have differential fitness consequences for two thyme (Thymus vulgaris) chemotypes (one with high nectar concentrations of ‘medicinal’ secondary metabolites, the other with low concentrations). Bee foraging behavior and thyme seed production will be compared across treatments in a factorial 2 x 2 infection status x plant chemotype design. Through this project, the fellow will develop critical skills in transcriptomics, chemical ecology, and behavioral ecology. The fellow will also develop and deliver related educational outreach activities to engage middle-school youth in science and conservation.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.