En-Gen: Genome-Enabled Environmental Functional Genomics and Expression Profiling of Diatoms in the Ocean

En-Gen：海洋硅藻的基因组环境功能基因组学和表达谱分析

• 批准号: 0722374
• 负责人: Bess Ward
• 金额: $ 104.62万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 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: 2007-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0722374&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: En; Gen; Genome; Enabled; Environmental

Diatoms contribute up to 25 % of total ocean productivity and are the basis of the world's greatest fisheries. Their genomes appear to be finely tuned to succeed under the environmental conditions of the modern world. They grow rapidly into blooms and draw down the ambient carbon dioxide to very low levels, and respond rapidly to essential nutrients such as nitrate and iron when they become available. Even in non-bloom conditions, they can grow as rapidly as the small and abundant cyanobacteria. Unlike the cyanobacteria, however, insights into their success from functional and comparative genomics have not been possible until now. This project will use newly available diatom genomes to discover which genes are highly expressed by natural assemblages in the environment in order to learn directly from the organisms about the nature and time frame of their response to different environmental conditions. The approach in this project builds on previous results from these investigators using single gene studies and data from libraries of gene sequences derived from cultures under conditions of iron and nitrogen stress. The investigators have identified a suite of candidate genes to study that are involved in carbon and nitrogen metabolism, and the stress response to nutrient limitation. These genes will be deployed on a diagnostic microarray to discover which genes are highly expressed in natural seawater under bloom and nutrient limiting conditions. These approaches will allow the investigators to identify critical gene targets for functional genomics research in diatoms in order to investigate the response of marine diatoms to environmental factors, including changes resulting from elevated temperatures and decreasing pH as a result of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and to predict physiological and possibly community responses to nutrient stress. Diatoms are relative newcomers to the modern world, having evolved under dramatically different environmental conditions than those present at the beginning of the era of oxygenic photosynthesis. Given the great ecological success of diatoms in the modern world, it is important to understand the genetic basis of their success, and thus their possible responses to changing conditions in the future. The investigators, their postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students will participate in a summer program to train science teachers and provide them with curriculum support on the importance of diatoms in the worlds oceans and the modern genomic approaches to studying these important members of the phytoplankton community. The project will also support and sponsor undergraduate research by recruiting summer intern students from the local junior colleges as well as from the home institution of the investigators.

硅藻占海洋总生产力的 25%，是世界上最大渔业的基础。 它们的基因组似乎经过精心调整，可以在现代世界的环境条件下取得成功。 它们迅速生长成花朵，将周围的二氧化碳吸收到非常低的水平，并在硝酸盐和铁等必需营养物质可用时迅速做出反应。 即使在非开花条件下，它们也能像小型而丰富的蓝藻一样快速生长。然而，与蓝细菌不同的是，迄今为止还无法从功能和比较基因组学中了解它们的成功。 该项目将利用新获得的硅藻基因组来发现哪些基因在环境中的自然组合中高度表达，以便直接从生物体中了解它们对不同环境条件的反应的性质和时间范围。 该项目中的方法建立在这些研究人员先前的结果基础上，使用单基因研究和来自铁和氮胁迫条件下培养物的基因序列文库的数据。 研究人员已经确定了一系列候选基因进行研究，这些基因涉及碳和氮代谢以及对营养限制的应激反应。这些基因将被部署在诊断微阵列上，以发现哪些基因在水华和营养限制条件下在天然海水中高度表达。 这些方法将使研究人员能够确定硅藻功能基因组学研究的关键基因靶标，以研究海洋硅藻对环境因素的反应，包括大气二氧化碳增加导致的温度升高和 pH 值降低所引起的变化，以及预测生理和可能的社区对营养压力的反应。 硅藻是现代世界相对较新的物种，其进化环境条件与含氧光合作用时代初期的环境条件截然不同。 鉴于硅藻在现代世界中取得的巨大生态成功，了解其成功的遗传基础以及它们对未来条件变化的可能反应非常重要。 研究人员、博士后研究员和研究生将参加一个暑期项目，培训科学教师，并为他们提供有关硅藻在世界海洋中的重要性以及研究浮游植物群落这些重要成员的现代基因组方法的课程支持。 该项目还将通过从当地大专院校以及研究人员所在机构招募暑期实习生来支持和赞助本科生研究。