| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 21, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 21, 2017 |
| Award Number: | 1708931 |
| Award Instrument: | Fellowship Award |
| Program Manager: |
Amanda Simcox
asimcox@nsf.gov (703)292-8165 DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $138,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $138,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
Davis CA US 95616-1913 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
East Lansing MI US 48824-3407 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Broadening Participation of Gr |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellow, Ash Zemenick, is conducting research and receiving training that is increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The fellow is being mentored by Marjorie Weber at the Michigan State University. This research explores how mites influence the pathogens of plants. Many plants have small tufts of hairs on the leaf ("domatia") that house mites. Mites can benefit plants by reducing the success of pathogens (bacteria and fungi), but the mechanisms and extent of variation are not well understood. Mites can directly reduce success of pathogens by eating them. Also, by influencing the abundance of microbes that inhibit pathogens, mites may indirectly influence pathogen success. Finally, because not all plants have domatia, the way in which mites and/or microbes influence pathogens may vary across plant species. The fellow is disentangling these effects using an experiment that manipulates the access of mites to plants, and the occurrence of potential pathogens. This research will increase the understanding of these widespread ecological interactions, and contribute to sustainable pathogen management in agroecosystems. This project also includes two explicit broader impacts that address some stereotypes that fuel underrepresentation in biology. First, the fellow has experienced life as a woman and transgender person, and thus serves as a role model in mentoring undergraduates involved in research. Second, the fellow is developing a repository of teaching materials to humanize biology and biologists by highlighting how research applies to societal issues and what it's like to be a biologist. The fellow is using examples provided by biologists that self-identify as members of underrepresented groups in STEM (e.g. in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, income, nationality, immigrant status, cognitive and physical ability, etc.).
The fellow is conducting manipulative experiment to understand how mites influence pathogen success directly (via consumption) and/or indirectly (via an altered microbial community composition that is less invasible). Leaves from 20 species of grapes (Vitis) will be experimentally manipulated with four treatments. Two (T1 and T2) will block mites, and two (T3 and T4) will have mites. After 2 weeks, half of all leaves will be harvested to assess leaf microbial communites. Fungal and bacterial DNA will be amplified using barcoded ITS and 16S primers and the resulting multiplexed amplicons will be subject to Illumina sequencing. A difference between no-mite (T1 and T2) and mite (T3 and T4) leaf microbial communities would empirically demonstrate that domatia-inhabiting mites influence leaf microbe community structure, and could therefore indirectly influence pathogen success in Vitis. The other half of replicates will remain in the field, with mites allowed only on T2 and T4. All leaves will be challenged with powdery mildew. If mite presence lowers pathogen infection of Vitis leaves, then leaves from T2-T4 will have lower infestation of powdery mildew than control (T1) leaves. If this reduction in pathogen infection is through direct consumption rather than indirectly through a modified leaf microbe community, then T2 and T4 leaves will have lower powdery mildew infestation than T2 leaves. To evaluate patterns of microbial community evolution and pathogen resistance across leaves, multi- and unidimensional comparative phylogenetic models will be used to assess whether microbial community composition and structure, as well as pathogen resistance, are evolutionarily correlated with domatia presence and size across Vitis species. If domatia presence and size are correlated with powdery mildew resistance across the phylogeny, there will be evidence for either: A) the selective environment for domatia included pathogen resistance, or B) evolution of domatia selected for the loss of direct pathogen resistance.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Intellectual merit
Leaves are one of the most important habitats for microbes (e.g. bacteria and fungi) on earth. Leaf-inhabiting microbes can impact plant growth in many ways. For example, some leaf microbes infect the plant and cause disease. Other leaf microbes feed on the materials that plants expel to the leaf surface. These surface microbes can also have neutral effects on plant growth, or can have positive effects if their presence reduce the colonization of pathogenic microbes. Therefore, understanding what factors impact which microbes live on plant leaves is important to understand how to manage plant pathogens in natural and agricultural settings. However, despite the importance of leaf microbes and knowledge that arthropods such as mites can feed on leaf microbes, little is known about how arthropods influence leaf microbe community composition, and how these interactions influence pathogen success and ultimately shape plant growth and the evolution of plant traits. Therefore, the research objective of this fellowship was to determine how leaf-inhabiting mites influence the types of microbes found on leaves, and further assess whether these effects have implications for the prevalence of plant pathogens. By manipulating the presence of tufts of leaf hairs on the base of leaves which are safe areas for mites to inhabit (domatia) on over 20 species of wild grapevine (Vitis spp.) we found that the presence of domatia significantly increased mite abundance on leaves. Mite abundance on leaves was associated with significant reduction in the amount of fungal hyphae on leaves, the number of species isolated from leaves, and the abundance of powdery mildew reads. These results are robust across two major comparisons: comparative approach, comparing species that naturally have domatia or do not have domatia, and experimental approach, comparing leaves with domatia experimentally blocked or left accessible.
Broader Impacts
People - including students and biologists - exhibit a diverse set of backgrounds and identities. However, most biology students are not exposed to a diversity of role models in the field of biology, and many students are taught about biology in a way that (often unintentionally) does not feel inclusive to them or their communities. To address this problem, the main broader impacts objective of this fellowship was to build an online repository of teaching materials and methods to enhance the diversity of role models presented in biology classrooms, and to provide methods that enable biology instructors to convey material with language and examples that are biologically accurate, and inclusive to students from all backgrounds and identities. This was accomplished with the construction and launch of Project Biodiversify (www.projectbiodiversify.org), a repository of teaching materials and methods aimed at enhancing human diversity and inclusivity in biology courses. Project Biodiversify's teaching materials aim to facilitate easy inclusion of a diverse set of biologists into classrooms lectures worldwide. We have constructed a database of teaching slides and notes based on the research and life experiences of biologists that self-identify as part of underrepresented group(s) in biology which is continuously growing. As of January 2020, we our repository of slides features >30 biologists from underrepresented groups. The purpose of Project Biodiversify's teaching methods branch is to develop teaching methods and approaches that train educators in inclusive teaching practices, thereby increasing student success, recruitment, and retention via inclusivity. At this end, we have designed and delivered workshops on inclusive and accurate methods for teaching sex and gender-related topics in biology, and this information is available on our website.
Last Modified: 01/30/2020
Modified by: Ash T Zemenick
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