NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, 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. The research aims to understand the distribution, dispersal of bacteriophage virus (phage) and its role in microbe interactions.

Despite the ubiquity of microbes, and especially predatory phages, there remains no clear understanding of phage ecology in nature nor their impact in more complex microbial communities. Indeed, microbes can influence biological processes at global scales, so understanding phage effects on microbial communities is important to elucidate larger scale effects.

Using strawberry floral nectar as a study system, this research will examine phage distribution with field surveys and the impact of phage on microbial community composition and nectar traits with laboratory experiments. Educational outreach on the social value of the research will be accomplished through a public symposium and workshop; students from underrepresented groups will be mentored in research settings through the recruitment of students at the host institution and from a local community college.

Phages are the most abundant and diverse microbial entity. Yet, the understanding of phage distribution and interactions is limited. Due to the lack of a universal genetic marker, phage research has focused on pairwise interactions between phage and bacterial species.

And, studies of microbial community assembly focus on competitive interactions among microbes, but do not generally consider predation by phages. Using strawberries as a study system, this research will study phage distribution in the field and of phage impacts to microbial communities that extend beyond pairwise interactions. To address these gaps in understanding, this research will first characterize the distribution of phages in strawberry field systems through the collection of strawberry nectar, leaves and insect visitors.

Second, to determine how phage presence influences floral microbial communities and nectar traits, this research will use full-factorial experiments of inoculated lab-grown strawberry plants. The NSF Fellowship will provide two years of postdoctoral training to gain the required expertise in microbial community ecology and continued training as a mentor for students underrepresented in STEM disciplines.

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.