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. This project investigates the dual and compounding impact that urbanization can have on disease susceptibility in wildlife: increased opportunity for contact between domestic and wild animals increases the likelihood of transmission, while habitat fragmentation can decrease gene flow and lead to inbreeding, in turn potentially compromising immune capacity. By focusing on the endangered Florida panther, which continues to be threatened by habitat loss and inbreeding, this research will further not only our efforts to conserve an iconic large carnivore, but more broadly, our understanding of how cross-species disease transmission occurs in an increasingly urbanizing world. The Fellow will develop a web-based platform to encourage educational and professional collaborations designed to conserve panther populations as well as incorporating a successful recruitment preview event that recruits students underrepresented in STEM disciplines.
This research will examine the link between inbreeding depression and spillover susceptibility at the wildland-urban interface (WUI). It leverages a novel combination of in vivo and in vitro sampling to achieve the power necessary to discover these effects, which would otherwise be impossible in a highly endangered species with a small population size. Using Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV; a common disease of domestic cats that has spilled into Florida panthers at least twice) as a test case, it will characterize effects of specific disease risk loci and inbreeding depression via genome-wide association (GWAS) and runs of homozygosity (ROH) analyses. The Fellow will then determine the molecular mechanisms underlying variation in disease risk using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and transcriptomic analyses. Finally, allele frequencies at disease risk loci will be mapped to the contemporary Florida panther species range using known sampling locations and spillover events. The Fellow will gain expertise in whole genome sequencing and quantitative genetics, while also building interdisciplinary relationships with wildlife managers and collaborators at four academic institutions. The Fellow will also create active learning modules, informed by research findings, that involve scientists and the public in conservation and management activities; an existing and successful preview process will also be adapted to the host institution in order to better recruit and matriculate underrepresented minority (URM) graduate students.
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.
