NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

Barrow Lisa N, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Lisa Barrow is "Assessing host specificity and climatic limits of avian blood parasites using a genome-wide approach." The host institutions for this fellowship are the University of New Mexico and Lund University, Sweden, and the sponsoring scientists are Dr. Christopher Witt and Dr. Staffan Bensch. The aims of this research are to (1) uncover patterns of biological diversity of avian blood parasites (i.e., malaria and related haemosporidians), and (2) determine how the interaction of bird host communities and climate affect parasite distributions. Understanding the evolution of either specialist life strategies (organisms living in a narrow range of environmental conditions) or generalist life strategies (organisms with the ability to occupy a wide range of environments) is a key question in biology and is of particular importance in host-pathogen systems. The Fellow's research uses the extensive bird and parasite collections in the Museum of Southwestern Biology, combining emerging genomic technologies, existing specimen and sequence databases, microscopy of blood smears, phylogenetic analysis, and species distribution modeling to address three main research objectives. The Fellow has three research objectives: 1) to assess levels of host specificity; 2) estimate evolutionary patterns of transition between specialist and generalist life strategies, and 3) determine the relative influence of host immune system or climate on parasite distributions. To pursue these objectives, the Fellow is collecting genomic data to investigate blood parasites along elevational gradients in the Peruvian Andes, a region with a diverse avian host community and climatic regime. Host switching has important evolutionary and ecological implications, and can also be devastating to native wildlife populations that are inexperienced with certain parasites. In the face of changing environments and climate, exposure to new pathogens is a pressing concern for population persistence. By focusing on communities along elevational gradients, the Fellow's research is providing insights into the factors limiting parasite distributions. The Fellow is receiving training in avian host-parasite systems, developing expertise in museum curation, improving bioinformatic and analytical skills, strengthening her mentoring skills, and building international collaborations. These goals directly contribute to the Fellow's development as an independent research scientist focusing on natural history collections. The research focuses on areas of broad human interest (disease and climate change), thereby providing several opportunities to promote training and learning, broaden participation of underrepresented groups, and develop international collaborations. The Fellow is providing research experiences to undergraduates, who are receiving training in skills applicable to biomedical or wildlife conservation careers (blood smear analysis, molecular data collection and analysis, species distribution modeling). The fellow recruits research assistants by coordinating with UNM's Initiative for Maximizing Student Development program, which works to increase diversity in STEM fields. The fellow is also visiting the co-sponsor's lab in Sweden to further develop international collaborations. Results from the research are being shared with the public through the MSB Ornithology Blog and Open House in order to increase public awareness and interest in scientific research and museum collections.