Exploring the role of boundary layer microbial remineralization in flavivirus-host dynamics

Marine diseases pose considerable risks to invertebrates, such as sea cucumbers, in the face of changing ocean conditions. While many invertebrate diseases are driven by pathogens, the interplay between animal biology and environmental conditions often mediates the outcome of the pathogen-host relationship. Sea cucumbers are ecologically and economically important animals that occur in a wide range of marine habitats.

This project aims to decipher how the interaction between the biology of sea cucumbers, environmental conditions, and a newly-discovered type of virus, seemingly innocuous under typical conditions, may lead to lethal disease in giant Pacific sea cucumbers in the U.S. West Coast. The study includes surveys in coastal regions in southeast Alaska, Washington, and California as well as laboratory experiments manipulating seawater oxygen concentrations, temperature, and simulated microalgal blooms.

The project engages community scientists, fishers, high school students, and indigenous groups, and supports training of one graduate and several undergraduate students. A workshop that brings together scientists across marine ecology, disease, and veterinary disciplines is planned to prepare a handbook of best practices in marine disease investigation.

Metagenomic and community-level sequencing efforts have revealed an astonishing diversity of viruses associated with grossly normal marine invertebrates. The vast majority of detected viruses likely represents asymptomatic infections under typical conditions but may generate pathology in hosts under changing environmental conditions. This project investigates the ecology of a group of enveloped positive sense single-stranded RNA viruses (flaviviruses) that this research team has recently discovered in the giant California sea cucumber Apostichopus californicus by addressing three hypotheses: 1) Aquatic insect-only Flaviviruses (aiFVs) do not cause gross pathology under typical conditions; 2) aiFVs proliferate and generate clinical and gross pathology under suboxic stress; and 3) Periodic increases in primary production and mean temperature excursions cause aiFV proliferation and subsequently exacerbate holothurian disease process.

The study comprises a restricted survey of aiFV diversity via amplicon sequencing and their prevalence within and between populations, development of an antibody-based approach for aiFV detection, and examination of aiFV behavior in concert with host transcription and veterinary pathology. The study includes field surveys and in laboratory manipulative experiments.

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.