This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbial Biology for FY2003. 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 recent doctoral recipients to obtain additional training in microbial biology, to gain research experience under the sponsorship of established scientists, and to broaden their 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 "Characterization of the relationship between antlions and their bacterial symbionts." A bacterial symbiont of the Japanese antlion Myrmeleon bore produces an insecticidal homologue of GroEL. This research is identifying symbionts of North American antlion species that produce a GroEL homologue and microscopically identifying antlion symbiotic tissues. Other studies will decipher the role of symbionts and their GroEL homologues in the health and behavior of their insect hosts.
