Project Grant 2231583
- This $493,073 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports collaborative research at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) on the evolutionary processes that enable a genus of ciliates known as Mesodinium to acquire and maintain phototrophy through organelle sequestration. The 3-year project will use comparative cellular, metabolic, and genetic analyses to understand the adaptations that allow some Mesodinium species to...
- This $800,000 Project Grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program, supports research to study the generation, maintenance, and function of extrachromosomal DNA (eDNA) in the malaria parasite Plasmodium. Key objectives include evaluating the connections between chromosomal genes and eDNA, the propensity for eDNA diversity, the cellular pathways and sequences contributing to eDNA generation and stability, and the clustering of eDNA within the...
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $272,547 to Arkansas State University to conduct research on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of snail-symbiont interactions. The project aims to uncover how environmental conditions shape the distribution and genetic diversity of freshwater invertebrate hosts and their parasites. Through field studies, outdoor experiments, and laboratory work, the research will explore how...
- This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program provides $270,000 in funding from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2029 to support a postdoctoral research fellowship focused on investigating the eco-evolutionary impacts of cyanobacterial diets on host-parasite interactions in freshwater ecosystems. The research aims to uncover the molecular basis for parasite susceptibility in the Daphnia-Metschnikowia host-parasite system and determine...
- This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $270,000.00 in funding from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2028. The award supports a Postdoctoral Fellowship to investigate the microbial ecology of the extremophile choanoflagellate Barroeca monosierra. The research will examine how environmental stressors like high salinity, arsenic, and cyanide drive adaptations and symbiosis in this recently discovered multicellular...
- This $899,809 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), will fund research to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms governing ciliate-algal symbiosis. The grantee, Regents of the University of California at Riverside, will utilize a single-celled ciliate model to identify genotype-phenotype relationships and discover novel genes governing endosymbiosis with dinoflagellate algae....
- This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $665,885 to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to conduct collaborative research on the evolution of acquired phototrophy in Mesodinium ciliates. The key products and services to be delivered under this 3-year award, which began on March 1, 2024, include: Comparative studies of the cellular, metabolic, and genetic adaptations across a genus of Mesodinium ciliates that...
- This three-year, $673,000 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will fund research into the role of ecological interactions in diversification among coexisting microbial species. The University of California, Irvine will study how commensal interactions, where one species benefits while the other is unaffected, influence the formation of new bacterial species in microbial communities. Researchers will culture bacteria in a commensal...
- This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant, awarded to New York University (NYU) on August 1, 2024, provides $552,466 in funding over a 3-year period to conduct collaborative research on the phylogeny, systematics, and adaptation of marine epizoic diatoms to endangered megafaunal hosts. The key objectives of this project are to: 1) document and describe up to 50 new diatom species living on marine animals like sea turtles, whales, and manatees;...
- This three-year, $317,027 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will support collaborative research on the phylogenomics and taxonomic revision of the diatom order Rhopalodiales. The research team, consisting of scientists from three U.S. universities and seven international institutions, will gather genomic and morphological data to address the evolutionary origins and diversification of Rhopalodiales. They will seek to determine when the...
PURSUIT: UNTANGLING A CLADE OF INTER-DEPENDENT APICOMPLEXANS AND THEIR BACTERIAL ENDOSYMBIONTS. -SYMBIOSIS HAS REPEATEDLY GIVEN RISE TO EVOLUTIONARY INNOVATION ACROSS THE TREE OF LIFE. APICOMPLEXANS, INCLUDING THE CAUSATIVE AGENT OF MALARIA, ARE THE DEADLIEST PROTOZOAN PARASITES ON THE PLANET. HOWEVER, ONE LINEAGE OF APICOMPLEXANS (THE GENUS NEPHROMYCES), HAVE EVOLVED A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH BACTERIAL ENDOSYMBIONTS THAT HAS NOT ONLY ENABLED AN ESCAPE FROM A PARASITIC LIFESTYLE, BUT CAUSED A LARGE RADIATION OF SPECIES. THIS PROJECT AIMS TO BOTH CHARACTERIZE THE DIVERSITY OF THESE SPECIES AND UNDERSTAND THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HOST AND SYMBIONT THAT TURNED A PARASITE INTO A HARMLESS INHABITANT. THIS WORK WILL BENEFIT SOCIETY BY ADVANCING UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIVERSITY AND CONTRIBUTION OF EUKARYOTIC MICROORGANISMS TO THE BIOSPHERE, WITH RESULTS THAT WILL BE DISSEMINATED THROUGH PEER-REVIEWED LITERATURE AND PRESENTATIONS FOR SCIENTIFIC AND LAY AUDIENCES. THE RESEARCH WILL ALSO BE COMMUNICATED TO A BROADER AUDIENCE THROUGH A WORKSHOP FOR PROFESSIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNALISTS. IN ADDITION, RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS WILL TRAIN THE NEXT GENERATION OF INTEGRATIVE SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGISTS. THIS PURSUIT PROJECT WILL UNTANGLE THE VARIOUS BIOLOGICAL ENTITIES THAT MAKE UP THE NEPHROMYCES COMMUNITY, ACROSS SIX SPECIES OF TUNICATE HOSTS. NEXT-GENERATION DNA SEQUENCING WILL BE USED TO DETERMINE THE DIVERSITY OF THE COMMUNITY, THEN EMPLOY SINGLE CELL ISOLATION TECHNIQUES TO CAPTURE, IMAGE AND DESCRIBE INDIVIDUAL NEPHROMYCES SPECIES AND THEIR BACTERIAL ENDOSYMBIONTS. USING FLUORESCENT IN SITU HYBRIDIZATION LABELS, THE DIFFERENT LIFE STAGES OF EACH SPECIES WILL BE COLLECTED AND PHOTO-DOCUMENTED FOR THE FULL LIFE HISTORY. AT LEAST TEN NEPHROMYCES SPECIES FROM EACH OF THE SIX TUNICATE SPECIES WILL BE FORMALLY NAMED, AS WELL AS THEIR BACTERIAL ENDOSYMBIONTS TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE UNDER THE EVOLVING PROKARYOTIC CODE OF NOMENCLATURE. FROM EXISTING GENOMIC DATA, CUTTING EDGE TECHNIQUES WILL BE EMPLOYED TO DETERMINE WHETHER GENES HAVE BEEN LATERALLY TRANSFERRED FROM ENDOSYMBIONT TO HOST. 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.
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $287.4k | 8/15/25 | ||
| Not listed | $981.9k | 2/21/23 |