Nancy A. Moran

Nancy A. Moran (born December 21, 1954, Dallas, Texas) is an American evolutionary biologist and entomologist, University of Texas Leslie Surginer Endowed Professor, and co-founder of the Yale Microbial Diversity Institute.[1][2] Since 2005, she has been a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.[1] Her seminal research has focused on the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum and its bacterial symbionts including Buchnera (bacterium).[3] In 2013, she returned to the University of Texas at Austin, where she continues to conduct research on bacterial symbionts in aphids, bees, and other insect species. She has also expanded the scale of her research to bacterial evolution as a whole. She believes that a good understanding of genetic drift and random chance could prevent misunderstandings surrounding evolution.[1] Her current research goal focuses on complexity in life-histories and symbiosis between hosts and microbes, including the microbiota of insects.[4]

Nancy A. Moran
Born(1954-12-21)December 21, 1954
Dallas, Texas
EducationPh.D.
Alma materUniversity of Michigan
Scientific career
FieldsEvolutionary biology
InstitutionsUniversity of Arizona (1986-2010); Yale University (2010-2013); University of Texas, Austin (2013-Present)
Websiteweb.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/

Early life

Moran is one of eight children of Robert Moran, who ran a drive-in movie theater.[1] As a child, Moran liked to collect insects in jars.[1] Yet as youth she never envisioned becoming a scientist and did not even find her biology class interesting.[1] Moran began her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas in 1972 in an honors program known as Plan II.[1] She started out as an art major, and later switched to philosophy. For an elective requirement she took an introduction to biology course. From this, she became interested in biology. During her senior year at college while taking a class on animal behavior with Nancy Burley as a TA (who later studied bird behavior), she undertook an honors project on mate choice in pigeons.[1][5]

Education and Career

In 1976, Moran graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Biology in 1976. She received her Ph.D. in zoology in 1982 from the University of Michigan studying with W.D. Hamilton and Richard D. Alexander.[1] In 1984, she was a fellow at the National Academy of Sciences in the Institute of Entomology in Czechoslovakia[6]>. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Northern Arizona University from 1984-1986.[4] She rose to the rank of Regents' Professor at the University of Arizona from 1986-2010, was the William H. Fleming Professor at Yale University from 2010-2013, and subsequently moved to the University of Texas where she is now the Leslie Surginer Endowed Professor and Warren J. and Viola Mae Raymer Chair.[6]

Research

Aphids

Early in Moran's career she studied an aphid species local to Arizona, Melaphis rhois, which has a peculiar life cycle migrating to moss from a complex gall on sumac.[1] While Moran's initial hypothesis was that this was a complex adaptation to changing seasons,[1] it turned out that it was an ancient adaptation dating back over 50 million years.[7] This work attracted the attention of Paul Baumann at the University of California at Davis, an expert in microbial diversity with an interest in aphid microbial diversity culminating in a 15-year collaboration on the mutualistic relationship between aphids and their symbionts.[1]

Buchnera aphidicola and the genomic evolution of other symbiotic bacteria

Initially, Moran and Baumman used 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing to demonstrate that Buchnera aphidicola bacteria and their aphid hosts co-evolve, or evolve together, due to their long-term symbiotic relationship. Subsequently, they demonstrated this coevolution of symbionts in mealybugs.[8]

As new technologies emerged and improved, Moran transitioned to examining the genomic evolution of symbiotic bacteria. By comparing Buchnera, an obligately host-associated bacteria, with closely related free-living bacteria, she demonstrated that Buchnera tends to accumulate nonsynonymous, silent mutations, more rapidly, increasing the AT-content of the genome with an accelerated rate of evolution.[9] In other words, these obligately host-associated bacteria accumulate mutations. They also accumulate deleterious mutations through Muller's Ratchet, such that genome reduction reflects an evolutionary phenomenon known as genetic drift.[9] Her research continued to involve sequencing genes of symbionts through whole genome sequencing and comparing them to free-living relatives using comparative genomics.[10][11][12]

Drosophila gut microbiomes

Moran's research on Drosophila gut microbiomes demonstrated that, unlike other species, Drosophila's microbiome content was ingested with food and varied widely between individuals and populations.[13] Her research provides information on this model organism and the bacteria it possesses which affects research done with Drosophila.[13] The research demonstrated that gut microbiota in Drosophila used as model organisms is more representative of the food they eat as opposed to the wild-type Drosophila gut microbiota. The conclusion of the research stressed the importance of including fieldwork into microbiota research to better understand the environment-driven gut microbiota makeup.[13]

Honey bee gut microbiomes

Moran is currently researching honey bees and their interaction with gut microbiota. Her research found that microbiota interact with host metabolism and hormone signaling.[14] This research showed that microbiota in social bees degrade plant polymers that the organisms consumes in their diet.[14] The research compared the bee's microbiome to other species and determined it can model host-microbiota interactions due to similarities such as types of bacteria.[14] Her work with eusocial corbiculate bees demonstrates that different phylogenies within this class of bees share a common ancestor for their gut microbiota independent of geography or sympatry.[15] Corbiculate bees include honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees.[15] She completed research on the symbiotic relationship between host insects and their gut microbiota and her research team has found that the honey bee's exposure to antibiotics disrupts the microbiota, which regulates weight and hormone signaling,[14] and increases mortality rates.[16] The data collected demonstrates the bee's susceptibility to fatal pathogens after antibiotic exposure.[16]

Notable awards and honors

Taxonomy

In 2011, one of Moran's trainees, John McCutcheon, named an endosymbiont in the mealy bug system Moranella endobia, in recognition of Moran's contributions to the field.[24]

Works

Personal life

Moran is married to Howard Ochman, a microbiologist, molecular genetist, and evolutionary biologist.[1] She has one daughter.[1] She acknowledges that the MacArthur genius award was a blessing, allowing her to reduce her teaching load to have more time for her research and her daughter.[1]

References
  1. Zagorski, N. (2005). "Profile of Nancy A. Moran". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (47): 16916–16918. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10216916Z. doi:10.1073/pnas.0508498102. PMC 1288003. PMID 16286644.
  2. "Moran Lab • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology • Yale University". Archived from the original on 2011-08-05. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
  3. "Carrots Share Trait With Tiny Pea Aphid", The New York Times, HENRY FOUNTAIN, May 3, 2010
  4. "Nancy Moran University of Texas at Austin". web.biosci.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2017-11-24.
  5. Burley, Nancy; Moran, Nancy (1979). "The significance of age and reproductive experience in the mate preferences of feral pigeons, Columba livia". Animal Behaviour. 27: 686–698. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(79)90005-8. ISSN 0003-3472. S2CID 53202864.
  6. "NANCY MORAN". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  7. Moran, N. A. (1989). "A 48-Million-Year-Old Aphid--Host Plant Association and Complex Life Cycle: Biogeographic Evidence". Science. 245 (4914): 173–175. Bibcode:1989Sci...245..173M. doi:10.1126/science.245.4914.173. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17787877. S2CID 2710577.
  8. Munson, Mark A.; Baumann, Paul; Morant, Nancy A. (1992). "Phylogenetic relationships of the endosymbionts of mealybugs (Homoptera: Pseudococcidae) based on 165 rDNA sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 1 (1): 26–30. doi:10.1016/1055-7903(92)90032-C. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 1342920.
  9. Moran, N. A. (1996). "Accelerated evolution and Muller's rachet in endosymbiotic bacteria". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 93 (7): 2873–2878. Bibcode:1996PNAS...93.2873M. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.7.2873. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 39726. PMID 8610134.
  10. Tamas, I. (2002). "50 Million Years of Genomic Stasis in Endosymbiotic Bacteria". Science. 296 (5577): 2376–2379. Bibcode:2002Sci...296.2376T. doi:10.1126/science.1071278. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 12089438. S2CID 19226473.
  11. McCutcheon, John P.; Moran, Nancy A. (2011). "Extreme genome reduction in symbiotic bacteria". Nature Reviews Microbiology. 10 (1): 13–26. doi:10.1038/nrmicro2670. ISSN 1740-1526. PMID 22064560. S2CID 7175976.
  12. Moran, Nancy A. (2002). "Microbial Minimalism". Cell. 108 (5): 583–586. doi:10.1016/S0092-8674(02)00665-7. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 11893328. S2CID 18688744.
  13. Martinson, Vincent G.; Carpinteyro-Ponce, Javier; Moran, Nancy A.; Markow, Therese A. (2017-09-22). "A distinctive and host-restricted gut microbiota in populations of a cactophilic Drosophila species". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 83 (23): e01551-17. doi:10.1128/AEM.01551-17. ISSN 1098-5336. PMC 5691420. PMID 28939605.
  14. Zheng, Hao; Powell, J. Elijah; Steele, Margaret I.; Dietrich, Carsten; Moran, Nancy A. (2017-05-02). "Honeybee gut microbiota promotes host weight gain via bacterial metabolism and hormonal signaling". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 114 (18): 4775–4780. doi:10.1073/pnas.1701819114. ISSN 1091-6490. PMC 5422775. PMID 28420790.
  15. Kwong, Waldan K.; Medina, Luis A.; Koch, Hauke; Sing, Kong-Wah; Soh, Eunice Jia Yu; Ascher, John S.; Jaffé, Rodolfo; Moran, Nancy A. (March 2017). "Dynamic microbiome evolution in social bees". Science Advances. 3 (3): e1600513. Bibcode:2017SciA....3E0513K. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1600513. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 5371421. PMID 28435856.
  16. Raymann, Kasie; Shaffer, Zack; Moran, Nancy A. (March 2017). "Antibiotic exposure perturbs the gut microbiota and elevates mortality in honeybees". PLOS Biology. 15 (3): e2001861. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2001861. ISSN 1545-7885. PMC 5349420. PMID 28291793.
  17. "American Academy of Arts & Sciences Directory". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  18. "AAAS Fellows" (PDF). Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  19. "University of Arizona Alumni Association". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  20. "Yale Evolutionary Biologist Nancy Moran Wins Coveted Japanese Science Prize". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  21. "Jim Tiedje Award". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  22. "Motoo Kimura Lifetime Contribution Award". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  23. Jeremy Yoder (May 31, 2017). "Nancy Moran awarded the 2017 Molecular Ecology Prize". Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  24. McCutcheon, John P.; von Dohlen, Carol D. (2011). "An Interdependent Metabolic Patchwork in the Nested Symbiosis of Mealybugs". Current Biology. 21 (16): 1366–1372. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.06.051. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 3169327. PMID 21835622.
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