内尔斯-埃尔德 进化遗传学家

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Nels Elde
Evolutionary Geneticist | Class of 2020
Investigating the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary processes driving host-pathogen interactions.


Portrait of Nels Elde

Title
Evolutionary Geneticist
Affiliation
Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah
Location
Salt Lake City, Utah
Age
47 at time of award
Area of Focus
Ecology and Evolutionary/Environmental Biology, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Website
Elde Lab
University Utah: Nels Elde
This Week in Evolution
Social
Twitter
Published October 6, 2020
ABOUT NELS'S WORK
Nels Elde is an evolutionary geneticist investigating host-pathogen interactions and the evolutionary processes that enable organisms to better attack others or defend themselves. Host-pathogen conflicts are akin to a back-and-forth “arms race,” as hosts gain improved immune defenses that frustrate microbial and viral assaults while pathogens better evade these same defenses. Through both retrospective analysis of naturally occurring evolutionary histories as well as microbial experimental evolution in the lab, Elde has identified several molecular mechanisms that drive rapid evolution of functional adaptations in hosts and pathogens.

In early work, he showed that poxviruses (double-stranded DNA viruses such as vaccinia, the vaccine for smallpox) defeat their mammalian host’s immune responses by expanding the genetic sequence for a viral protein that disables the host’s own immunity-providing protein. The ability to expand or contract genetic sequences—which Elde calls “gene accordions”—enables viruses to rapidly evolve in response to shifting host defenses. Elde observed in great apes an instance of the Red Queen hypothesis, the active and ongoing evolutionary interplay between a host (the apes) and a pathogen (H. influenzae). The host great ape produces transferrin, an iron transport protein, to supply cells and sequester iron away from pathogens—so-called nutritional immunity; in response, the bacteria H. influenzae produces a surface protein that binds transferrin and scavenges iron from its host organism in order to facilitate infection. Elde’s group showed that the transferrin sequence in great apes rapidly evolves to evade iron scavenging in the face of bacterial protein evolution, a finding with the potential to aid development of more effective treatments against bacterial infections.

More recently, Elde has revealed how transposable elements of genetic sequences in the mammalian genome (long thought to be “selfish” self-replicating DNA) could, in addition, be a means for distributing regulatory sequences throughout the genome and spurring evolution of improved immune defenses. The potential impacts of Elde’s work are wide-ranging, from better understanding of host switching (where the pathogen moves from vertebrate animals to humans) to identifying druggable targets in bacteria and viruses as treatment for emerging infectious diseases.

BIOGRAPHY
Nels Elde received a BA (1995) from Carleton College and a PhD (2005) from the University of Chicago. Elde was a postdoctoral fellow in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from 2005 to 2011. He joined the faculty of the University of Utah in 2011, where he is currently an associate professor in the Department of Human Genetics. Since 2015, Elde co-hosts the podcast This Week in Evolution. His scientific articles have appeared in such journals as Cell, Science, Nature, and Current Biology, among others.

IN NELS'S WORDS


NelsElde:"Theevolutionaryrecordconsistsmostlyoftheunseenandunknown—countlesslivesandlineagesnowgone.WhenMozartwasachild,hesurvivedsmallpox,butwhatifhedidn’tmakeit?Whataboutalltheoneswhodidn’tmakeit?CouldtherehavebeensomekindofsuperMozartamongthemand,ifso,whatdidhermusicsoundlike?"


The evolutionary record consists mostly of the unseen and unknown—countless lives and lineages now gone. When Mozart was a child, he survived smallpox, but what if he didn’t make it? What about all the ones who didn’t make it? Could there have been some kind of super Mozart among them and, if so, what did her music sound like?



内尔斯-埃尔德
进化遗传学家 | 2020级
研究驱动宿主-病原体相互作用的分子机制和进化过程。


内尔斯-埃尔德的肖像

标题
进化的遗传学家
工作单位
犹他大学人类遗传学系
工作地点
盐湖城，犹他州
年龄
获奖时47岁
重点领域
生态学和进化/环境生物学, 遗传学和分子生物学
网站
埃尔德实验室
犹他大学。内尔斯-埃尔德
本周的进化
社会
推特
发表于2020年10月6日
关于内尔斯的工作
内尔斯-埃尔德是一名进化遗传学家，研究宿主与病原体的相互作用以及使生物体能够更好地攻击他人或保护自己的进化过程。宿主与病原体的冲突类似于一场来回的 "军备竞赛"，因为宿主获得了改进的免疫防御系统，挫败了微生物和病毒的攻击，而病原体则更好地躲避这些相同的防御系统。通过对自然发生的进化历史的回顾性分析，以及在实验室进行的微生物实验性进化，埃尔德已经确定了几个分子机制，这些机制推动了宿主和病原体的功能适应性的快速进化。

在早期的工作中，他表明痘病毒（双链DNA病毒，如天花疫苗）通过扩大病毒蛋白的基因序列，使宿主自身的免疫力提供的蛋白失效，从而击败了哺乳动物宿主的免疫反应。扩大或收缩基因序列的能力--埃尔德称之为 "基因手风琴"--使病毒能够根据宿主防御系统的变化而迅速进化。埃尔德在巨猿身上观察到了红皇后假说的一个实例，即宿主（巨猿）和病原体（流感病毒）之间积极和持续的进化相互作用。宿主巨猿产生转铁蛋白，一种铁运输蛋白，以供应细胞并将铁从病原体那里封存起来--即所谓的营养免疫；作为回应，流感杆菌产生一种表面蛋白，与转铁蛋白结合并从其宿主机体中清除铁，以促进感染。埃尔德的研究小组表明，面对细菌蛋白的进化，类人猿的转铁蛋白序列迅速进化以逃避铁的清除，这一发现有可能帮助开发针对细菌感染的更有效疗法。

最近，埃尔德揭示了哺乳动物基因组中的遗传序列的可转移元素（长期以来被认为是 "自私的 "自我复制的DNA）如何能够成为在整个基因组中分布调节序列和刺激改进的免疫防御系统进化的一种手段。埃尔德工作的潜在影响是广泛的，从更好地了解宿主转换（病原体从脊椎动物转移到人类）到确定细菌和病毒中的可药用目标，以治疗新出现的传染病。

个人简历
内尔斯-埃尔德获得了卡尔顿学院的学士学位（1995年）和芝加哥大学的博士学位（2005年）。2005年至2011年，Elde在弗雷德哈钦森癌症研究中心担任博士后研究员。他于2011年加入犹他大学的教师队伍，目前是该校人类遗传学系的副教授。自2015年以来，埃尔德共同主持了播客《本周进化》。他的科学文章出现在《细胞》、《科学》、《自然》和《当代生物学》等杂志上。

内尔斯的话


NelsElde: "进化记录主要包括看不见的和不为人知的生命和已经消失的路线。当莫扎特还是个孩子的时候，他活过了天花，但如果他没能活下来呢？ 那些没能活下来的人呢？


进化的记录主要包括看不见的和未知的--无数的生命和血统现在已经消失了。当莫扎特还是个孩子时，他从天花中幸存下来，但如果他没有成功呢？所有没能活下来的人呢？他们中会不会有某种超级莫扎特，如果有的话，她的音乐听起来是什么样的？