Collaborative Research: Testing hypotheses about diversity, gene flow, and effective population size in marine planktonic ciliates

合作研究：检验有关海洋浮游纤毛虫多样性、基因流和有效种群规模的假设

• 批准号: 0648711
• 负责人: George McManus
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-03-01 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0648711&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Testing; hypotheses; about

The decoupling of molecular and classical approaches to environmental microbiology has not been fruitful and it represents one of the most important challenges for the field in the coming years. Classical approaches center on the centuries-old tradition of describing individual species via meticulous observation and analysis to generate monographs, such as is done for plants and animals. Unfortunately, the rush to new molecular techniques has sometimes ignored this tradition, with claims about new lineages never seen before and reports of staggering diversity of microbial eukaryotes based on environmental DNA samples not backed up by even the most elementary microscopic observations. In the face of this disconnect between the traditional and the molecular, this project is a marriage of the two approaches in the study of marine ciliate diversity and gene flow. Preliminary data show that in some clades of planktonic ciliates (Strombidiidae) there is indeed a high level of molecular diversity underlying a relatively small number of morphospecies. In other clades (some choreotrichs), the opposite appears to be true, with morphological heterogeneity underlain by apparently clonal lines, based on molecular data. Currently, we do not understand what sustains diversity in some clades; nor do we know why other clades show low diversity. This problem is amenable to both experimental and observational approaches. This project will follow a two-pronged approach, combining molecular (clone libraries, DGGE, FISH) and traditional (light microscopy) techniques to address three broad questions: 1). What are the most important physical and biological factors that affect distribution and diversity of planktonic marine ciliates? 2). What is the effective population size for marine ciliate populations, and how does this compare to census population sizes? 3). How well do traditional morphological descriptions of ciliate species fare when compared with molecular characterizations? Using a combination of molecular and microscopy methods, the investigators will address these questions in coastal planktonic ciliates. Analyses of the resulting data will yield insights into the nature of ciliate species and patterns of gene flow within the North Atlantic.The broader impacts of this proposal include training and outreach to K-12 educators. The PIs have a past record that demonstrates success in training both undergraduate and graduate students. Both PIs have proven track records in mentoring students from traditionally underrepresented groups, and they will continue to aim recruitment activities towards broadening diversity of participants in this project. The PIs will also participate in teacher training through a partnership with Project Oceanology, a private non-profit marine education organization located at UConn. Each summer of the project they will host two K-12 teachers who will receive tuition scholarships to earn graduate credit for research experiences in ciliate biology and ecology under the supervision of the PIs. Finally, resulting data from this project will be made available through the internet as well as in publications.

分子和经典的环境微生物学方法的脱钩并非富有成果，它代表了未来几年对该领域最重要的挑战之一。经典方法以细致的观察和分析来描述单个物种的传统，以产生专着，例如针对动植物进行专着。不幸的是，新的分子技术有时忽略了这一传统，关于以前从未见过的新谱系的主张以及基于环境DNA样品的惊人多样性的报道，即使是最基本的显微镜观察也没有支持。面对传统和分子之间的这种脱节，该项目是研究海洋纤毛多样性和基因流的两种方法的婚姻。初步数据表明，在一些浮游纤毛（Strombidiidae）的进化枝中，确实存在相对较少数量的形态物种的高度分子多样性。在其他进化枝（一些杜鹃花）中，基于分子数据，相反的形态异质性显然是克隆线的限制。目前，我们不了解某些进化枝的持续多样性。我们也不知道为什么其他进枝表现出低多样性。这个问题适合实验和观察方法。该项目将遵循两种义务的方法，结合了分子（克隆库，DGGE，鱼）和传统（光学显微镜）技术，以解决三个广泛的问题：1）。影响浮游海洋纤毛分布和多样性的最重要的物理和生物学因素是什么？ 2）。海洋纤毛种群的有效人口规模是多少，这与人口普查人口规模相比如何？ 3）。与分子特征相比，纤毛物种的传统形态描述的表现如何？结合分子和显微镜方法，研究人员将在沿海浮游纤毛中解决这些问题。对所得数据的分析将产生对北大西洋中纤毛物种和基因流量模式的性质的见解。该提案的更广泛影响包括培训和向K-12教育者提供培训和推广。 PI有过去的记录，证明了在培训本科生和研究生方面取得了成功。这两个PI都在指导传统代表性不足的群体的学生方面已证明了记录，他们将继续将招聘活动旨在扩大该项目的参与者的多样性。 PIS还将通过与位于UConn的私人非营利海洋教育组织Project Oceanology建立合作伙伴关系来参加教师培训。该项目的每个夏天，他们都将接待两名K-12教师，他们将获得学费奖学金，以在PIS的监督下获得纤毛生物学和生态学研究经验的研究生学分。最后，将通过Internet和出版物提供该项目的结果数据。