NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Are variants under selection for disease resistance predictive of disease susceptibility across taxa?

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, 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. Since the 1970's, 3 billion birds have disappeared from North America. Infectious disease is an important cause of bird mortality. Beginning in 1999, West Nile Virus rapidly spread across North America, primarily infecting birds and sometimes leading to their death. Over the past two decades, house sparrows have evolved resistance to West Nile Virus, but the mechanism is unknown. This project will identify the genetic mechanisms through which house sparrows have evolved resistance to West Nile Virus. Birds are important vectors for many diseases, and this will be the first project to characterize how birds adapt to West Nile Virus. The Fellow will use this information to predict whether other species of birds are susceptible to West Nile Virus. The Fellow will recruit and train underrepresented minority students at UC Santa Cruz, a Hispanic Serving Institute, to work on this project. The Fellow will also volunteer outreach and teach to diverse undergraduate and K-12 students, inspiring them to pursue STEM careers. This project will first generate RNA-seq from house sparrows previously infected by West Nile virus. These data will be used to identify candidate genes where expression or splicing is associated with West Nile viral load. Next, the Fellow will identify genetic variants that are under selection in wild house sparrow populations through DNA-seq of museum specimens. Specifically, the Fellow will sequence samples from multiple house sparrow populations before and after the introduction of West Nile Virus and determine whether adaptation is parallel in response to West Nile Virus. By limiting our scope to the candidate genes identified previously, this project will identify variants that are likely to mediate West Nile resistance. Finally, the Fellow will develop a West Nile virus susceptibility predictor based on these variants and assess its ability to predict susceptibility across avian taxa. The Fellow will be trained in state-of-the-art techniques to isolate DNA from museum samples and will develop a strong understanding of disease ecology. The Fellow will also lead sampling field trips of underrepresented minority students through CALeDNA, a community science initiative to monitor ecological diversity through environmental DNA. 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.