RII Track-4: Leveraging fermented foods to understand microbial interactions under changing environments and broaden scientific training opportunities

细菌和真菌等微生物对人类和环境健康都至关重要。发酵食品体现了微生物群落的重要性，因为微生物推动了发酵，从而产生了这些食品的味道、质地、延长的保质期，甚至一些健康益处。其中许多食品具有多方面的意义，包括营养和文化重要性，以及由于保质期延长而在食品安全方面的作用。该项目与当地重要的发酵食品，如芋头(POI)合作，将确定微生物物种的成功和丰富程度如何不仅由非生物环境(例如，温度、水分、酸度、营养物质)决定，而且还由生物相互作用(例如，其他生物的有益或有害影响)决定。该项目将提高研究能力，推进具有基础和应用重要性的科学知识，并启动一项研究计划，提供与文化相关的科学培训机会。这项研究将在加州大学的一家发酵食品微生物学世界领先者的实验室举行。通过这一奖学金和合作，PI和学生将发展尖端分子方法方面的专业知识，以确定决定细菌适合性的特征。将这些工具与PI在微生物群落生态学方面的互补专业知识相结合，将大大提高PI的研究能力和她的研究计划的覆盖范围，同时加强夏威夷大学的微生物组科学计划。该项目旨在确定微生物相互作用在不断变化的环境条件下的适宜性结果。该项目将特别关注当地重要发酵食品在生态演替过程中的微生物相互作用，但该研究问题的范围在基础和应用微生物生态学中具有广泛的重要性。该项目将使用最近开发的高通量分子方法来识别细菌生存所需的基因或假定的特征。这些机械方法将与群落生态框架相结合，以了解微生物相互作用的适合性后果(即微生物如何影响彼此的适合性)，这些影响下的分子机制是什么，以及相互作用如何因环境条件的变化而变化。这项研究将促进对某些微生物物种在特定环境中成功或丰富的原因的科学理解。产生的新知识可以为未来的努力提供信息，以预测微生物群落的有益价值，并最终使微生物群落达到预期的功能，从而使社会受益。这个项目将开发一个基础研究模型，重点关注当地的、具有重要文化意义的发酵食品，这些食品在历史上一直没有得到充分的研究。通过创造与文化相关的研究培训机会，该项目将促进更广泛的科学参与。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。

Microbes such as bacteria and fungi are crucial to both human and environmental health. Fermented foods exemplify the importance of microbial communities because microbes drive the fermentation that results in the flavors, textures, extended shelf-life and even some health benefits of these foods. Many of these foods have multi-faceted significance, including nutritional and cultural importance as well as roles in food security due to extended shelf life. Working with locally important fermented foods, such as taro (poi), this project will determine how the success and abundance of microbial species is determined not only by the abiotic environment (e.g., temperature, moisture, acidity, nutrients) but also by biotic interactions (e.g., helpful or harmful influences of other organisms). This project will increase research capacity, advance scientific knowledge with basic and applied importance, and initiate a research program that will provide culturally relevant scientific training opportunities. The fellowship will take place at the University of California, in the laboratory of a world leader in fermented food microbiology. Through this fellowship and collaboration, the PI and student will develop expertise in cutting edge molecular methods to identify the traits that determine bacterial fitness. Integration of these tools with the PI’s complementary expertise in microbial community ecology will substantially increase the PI’s research capacity and the reach of her research program while strengthening the microbiome science program at the University of Hawai‘i. This project aims to determine the fitness consequences of microbial interactions under changing environmental conditions. The project will specifically focus on microbial interactions during ecological succession in locally important fermented foods, but the scope of the research question is broadly important across basic and applied microbial ecology. The project will employ recently developed high throughput molecular methods to identify genes or putative traits needed for bacterial survival. These mechanistic methods will be integrated with a community ecological framework to understand the fitness consequences of microbial interactions (i.e., how microbes affect each other’s fitness), what molecular mechanisms underly those effects, and how the interactions change due to shifting environmental conditions. The research will advance scientific understanding of why certain microbial species are successful or abundant in a given environment. The new knowledge generated can benefit society by informing future efforts to predict the beneficial value of microbial communities and eventually engineer microbial communities for desired functions. This project will develop a basic research model focused on local, culturally important fermented foods, which have historically been understudied. By creating culturally relevant research training opportunities, this project will foster broader participation in science.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.