Cooperative Agreement 16CA11420004043

This award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program, CFDA 47.074, provides $1,335,651 to The University Of Kentucky Research Foundation to conduct research on speciation with gene flow in a pair of pine-feeding insect species. The project aims to understand how some species can maintain genetic differences despite ongoing gene exchange. Key research activities include: Larval diet manipulations and transcriptome analyses to quantify reproductive isolation and...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $265,065 Project Grant under its Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program to Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. The project, titled "COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: HOW DO GALL-FORMING INSECTS ESCAPE DIVERSE AND EVOLVING CLADES OF PARASITIC WASPS - AND HOW DO PARASITES CATCH UP?", will study the diversity and evolutionary histories of oak gall wasps and their parasitic wasp predators. The research will document the parasitic wasps that...

This three-year National Science Foundation project grant of $499,294 will support research on Neotropical velvet worms (Onychophora, Peripatidae, Neopatida) through June 2025. The research team from The George Washington University will document and describe new species, assess conservation status, and analyze evolutionary processes influencing biodiversity and distribution over geological time for this understudied group. High-throughput sequencing and morphological techniques will provide...

This three-year, $502,187 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Emerging Frontiers will support the discovery and characterization of novel viral pathogens of Caenorhabditis elegans. Funded under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), the award aims to identify new viruses in wild-caught free-living nematodes that can infect C. elegans. West Chester University of Pennsylvania will conduct the work, with support provided to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania....

This $1,400,000.00 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports research on the phylogenetics and evolutionary genetics of sexual dimorphism in bagworm moths. The research will involve collecting global bagworm species, constructing a phylogeny to understand evolutionary transitions in sexual dimorphism, and generating genomic resources to uncover the genetic mechanisms controlling sexually dimorphic development. Key goals...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences Program (CFDA 47.074) grant award to the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) aims to advance the understanding of how plants recognize and respond to infection by plant parasitic nematodes, one of the most destructive plant pathogens causing an estimated $78 billion in global annual losses. The $796,385 project, running from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2027, will identify nematode-derived molecules that activate plant innate immunity...

This $117,047 cooperative agreement awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025) will support host-specificity testing of the biological control agent Dolichogenidea gelechiidivoris. This parasitic wasp is being evaluated as a potential long-term control option for the South American tomato pinworm, an invasive pest that poses a significant threat to...

This federal Project Grant award of $280,113 from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program supports collaborative research to study how gall-forming insects evade parasitic wasps and how the parasites adapt to their hosts. The research team from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, including a postdoctoral scholar, three graduate students, and several undergraduates, will document the parasitic wasps that attack hundreds of oak gall insect...

This $748,083 project grant from the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program will fund research into the multi-year impacts of applying persistent strains of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) for control of western corn rootworm. The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will investigate EPN impacts across corn agroecosystems in Texas, Nebraska, and Illinois by measuring abundance of beneficial...

This $502,986 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Emerging Frontiers will fund research at Austin Peay State University under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) to identify genes in mothers of the burying beetle Nicrophorus orbicollis that cause variation in offspring traits linked to fitness. The research aims to study indirect genetic effects, known as social influences, which are theorized to play important roles in phenotypic evolution...