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 "Genetic mechanisms of social interactions in a microbial system." Social amoebae hunt bacteria in forest soils. When bacteria are depleted in a small area amoebae aggregate and living cells are lifted by dead cells that form a stalk. The proposed research looks at variation in this system across species and evaluates the genetic basis of this important social behavior.
