NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Mechanisms of Sensory-Motor Coordination in Zoospores of Pathogenic Chytrid Fungi

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The Fellow will investigate the relationship between detection of a target and movement towards the target by a pathogen (disease causing organism).

These two systems are important for pathogenesis (disease); understanding how they evolve, and function together is crucial for creating treatments and preventing future epidemics. The chytrids are a group of single-celled fungi that have repeatedly emerged as pathogenic agents in vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, algae, and other fungi. This project will focus on the infectious life stage of chytrid fungi – revealing how they locate, navigate towards, and identify hosts.

Currently, two species of chytrids are annihilating global amphibian populations in an epidemic that represents the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity due to a pathogen. Understanding how chytrids find and infect hosts will open new avenues to mitigate their current and future ecological impact while also advancing the understanding of parasite biology.

Furthermore, chytrid fungi serve as a model for pathogenic epidemics that can destabilize ecosystems through the loss of biodiversity – potentially leading to increases in carriers of human disease and loss of normal ecosystem function. In addition to this research, the Fellow will work with outreach groups at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to promote the inclusion and visibility of underrepresented groups in STEM.

Sensory and motor systems are linked through signal transduction pathways, allowing cells to coordinate behaviors with the external environment. Chytrid parasites have likely linked sensory and motor systems to find and identify hosts with devastating results. This project predicts that chytrid infection relies heavily on integrated sensory-motor pathways that can be disrupted.

Through behavioral experiments, confocal and super-resolution microscopy, and phylogenetics, the Fellow will achieve two objectives. 1: determine if chytrids use diffusible chemical cues to identify and infect hosts. 2: identify the role broadly conserved signaling components play in guiding chytrid infectious behavior. This project will result in a deeper understanding of the sensory and motor pathways needed for chytrid infection and will answer broader questions about parasitism, pathogenicity, and sensory-motor coordination.

The Fellow will collaborate with undergraduates from underrepresented groups to produce open-source educational material for teaching how light and vision have evolved and integrated with behavior in different animals.

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.