This three-year, $581,244 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Emerging Frontiers will fund research into integrated mechanisms of environment-host-virome interactions in Egyptian fruit bats. The grant was awarded to Texas Tech University on August 1, 2022 under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), which supports basic biological research to strengthen the nation's scientific enterprise and increase knowledge of major problems.
Specifically, the grant will allow researchers to study how factors like food access, animal health, and immune responses interact in wild bat populations experiencing variable human exposure to influence viral infection levels. Using Egyptian fruit bats as a model system, the project will examine how host abundance, reproduction, age, condition relate to viral diversity. It will also analyze how bats' molecular immune mechanisms respond to environmental and physiological stressors. Gene expression profiles and viral infections will be assessed to discern links between environmental gradients of human disturbance and virome diversity via organismal conditions. The results are intended to provide new insights into disease dynamics in wildlife and help predict and prevent future pandemics.