IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Integrating molecular, cellular, organismal and community scales to understand how plants structure pollinator-pathogen dynamics

传粉者对植物繁殖和人类食品安全至关重要，但由于包括病原体在内的压力因素，许多传粉者物种正在减少。最近的发现，向日葵花粉大大减少了熊蜂体内常见肠道病原体的感染，花卉物种在影响病原体传播方面存在差异，这提出了这项研究将解决的两个关键问题：植物物种如何影响其传粉者的疾病动态，以及导致这些影响的机制是什么？该项目的工作涉及分子生物学家、生态学家和数学模型师之间的新合作。这项工作将结合分子和生态学研究，以了解花粉如何形成感染，并评估病原体如何在花中传播。该项目还将与土地管理人员合作，创建新的传粉者栖息地，以模拟和测试植物资源如何影响传粉者的健康。该项目将进行广泛的公共宣传，为服务不足社区的中学生开发课外课程，并培训研究生包容性教学实践。综上所述，这项工作将在不同学科之间架起桥梁，了解花卉如何影响传粉者的健康，并将培养新一代多样化的科学家。食物资源是调节寄主-病原体动态的关键因素，但它们可能在不同的生物组织水平上产生相反的影响。例如，资源的质量或数量可以刺激宿主免疫系统，减少生物体水平的感染，但增加社区水平的宿主密度和接触率，加剧病原体传播。这项研究将结合实验，利用高度可驯化的蜜蜂实验室和田间系统以及通过共享花卉资源传播的锥虫病原体，在分子、细胞、有机、物种相互作用和群落水平上确定资源质量和数量对宿主-病原体动态的影响。利用25种植物，研究将评估花粉饲料对病原体分子和细胞体外过程的影响，体内感染动态，觅食过程中传播的可能性，以及田间访问网络和传粉者种群动态。目标植物包括菊科植物，这是最普遍的维管束植物科之一，因为最近的研究表明，来自该科的花粉一直可以减少大黄蜂的感染。来自所有目标的数据将使用数学建模进行整合，该数学模型将多个尺度上的过程连接起来，以预测植物群落组成如何影响传粉者的病原体感染。该项目将为研究生提供公平的STEM教育学培训，同时在服务不足的社区创建中学科学规划，与专注于公平性的STEM教育者合作，以最大限度地提高效率。与创建传粉者栖息地的多个团体合作将为促进科学家和利益相关者之间的沟通提供一个理想的平台。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。

Pollinators are critical for plant reproduction and human food security, but many pollinator species are declining due to stressors, including pathogens. The recent discoveries that sunflower pollen dramatically reduces infection by a common gut pathogen in bumble bees, and that flower species differ in how they affect pathogen transmission raises two key questions that will be addressed by this research: How do plant species affect disease dynamics in their pollinators, and what are the mechanisms responsible for those effects? The project work involves a new collaboration between a molecular biologist, ecologists, and a mathematical modeler. The work will combine molecular and ecological studies to understand how pollen shapes infection and to assess how pathogens are transmitted at flowers. The project will also partner with land managers creating new pollinator habitats to model and test how floral resources affect pollinator health. The project will conduct extensive public outreach, develop an after-school curriculum for middle-school students from an underserved community, and train graduate students in inclusive teaching practices. Taken together, this work will build bridges between disciplines to understand how flowers affect pollinator health and will train a new diverse generation of scientists. Food resources are key factors mediating host-pathogen dynamics, but they may have opposing effects at different biological levels of organization. For example, resource quality or quantity could stimulate the host immune system and reduce infection at the organismal level, yet increase host densities and contact rates at the community level, exacerbating pathogen spread. This research will integrate experiments to determine the impacts of resource quality and quantity on host-pathogen dynamics at the molecular, cellular, organismal, species interactions, and community levels using a highly tractable laboratory and field system of bees and a trypanosomatid pathogen that is transmitted via shared floral resources. Using 25 plant species, studies will assess effects of pollen diets on pathogen molecular and cellular processes in vitro, infection dynamics in vivo, likelihood of transmission during foraging, and visitation networks and pollinator population dynamics in the field. Plants to be targeted include the species from the Asteraceae, one of the most ubiquitous vascular plant families, because recent research shows that pollen from this family consistently reduces infection in bumble bees. Data from all objectives will be integrated using mathematical modeling that connects processes at multiple scales to predict how plant community composition shapes pathogen infection in pollinators. The project will provide equitable STEM pedagogy training for graduate students while creating middle school science programming in under-served communities, collaborating with a STEM educator focused on equitability to maximize effectiveness. Engagement with multiple groups creating pollinator habitat will provide an ideal platform for fostering communication between scientists and stakeholders.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.