This $590,677 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program aims to enhance understanding of the diversity, assembly, and evolution of microbiomes associated with marine invertebrates. The award to New College of Florida supports the following key activities: Investigating how and why particular microbes are hosted by different invertebrates, whether microbial diversity is related to host diversity, and how these associations change over evolutionary time. The project is training graduate, undergraduate, and high school students in assessing microbiome diversity, using novel data mining software, and identifying/classifying marine invertebrates. It is also developing models to analyze host-symbiont interactions across spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales, with a focus on environmental filtering, host-associated selection, spatial connectivity, microbial competition, and processes driving microbiome assembly and evolution. The research includes experimental testing using marine sponges as model organisms to examine microbiome divergence in allopatric versus sympatric settings. This project supports NSF's "Rules of Life" initiative focused on advancing microbiome science.
Mod # | Description | Reason For Modification | Federal Obligation (Click to sort descending) | Date (Click to sort ascending) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $590.7k | 4/11/25 |