This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbial Biology for FY2001. The fellowship supports training and research on the basic biology of protozoan, microalgal, fungal, archaeal, bacterial and viral species that are not generally considered to be model organisms. Further, it provides opportunities for a recent doctoral recipients to obtain additional training in microbial biology, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden his/her scientific horizons beyond the research experiences during the undergraduate and graduate training. These fellowships are further designed to assist new scientists to direct their research efforts across traditional disciplinary lines and to avail themselves of unique research resources, sites, and facilities, including foreign locations.
The research and training plan is entitled "Coevolution at the genomic level of aphids and their bacterial endosymbionts." An ancient association between the aphid, Melaphis rhois, and its bacterial endosymbiont, Buchnera aphidicola, has produced an obligate mutualism in which symbionts provide essential amino acids to their hosts. Buchnera gene expression patterns over the course of the host complex life cycle are being characterized using microarray technology.
