Collaborative Research: Evaluating the contributions of horizontally transferred bacterial genes and endogenous duplication events to the diversification of diatoms

合作研究：评估水平转移细菌基因和内源复制事件对硅藻多样化的贡献

• 批准号: 1353152
• 负责人: Norman Wickett
• 金额: $ 30.02万
• 依托单位: Chicago Horticultural Society
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-04-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1353152&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Evaluating; contributions; horizontally

The goal of this project is to identify the sources of novel diatom traits, which have contributed to their extraordinary metabolic and species-level diversity. Some traits are encoded by genes acquired from distantly related bacteria, an entirely different kingdom in the tree of life. Other genes appear to have been generated by processes acting within diatom genomes. This project will generate genome-scale data for 250 phylogenetically disparate diatom species. These data will be used to: (1) infer evolutionary relationships, (2) identify the sources - whether intrinsic or extrinsic - of new genes, and (3) correlate the pattern and timing of gene acquisitions with the origins of novel traits.This study would result in the training of a post-doctoral researcher, undergraduates and graduate students. With an estimated 200,000 species, diatoms are one of the most diverse groups of marine and freshwater phytoplankton. These microscopic "plants" play a major role in the global cycling of carbon and oxygen, producing the oxygen for one of every five human breaths. They manufacture the fatty acids that make their way up the food chain, eventually into fish, which humans harvest for fish oils. Diatoms possess a broad range of novel traits that, together, have facilitated their rise to prominence in the world's oceans. Ultimately, this project will reveal how nature has assembled the mosaic genomes of one of the world's most diverse and ecologically important lineages.

该项目的目标是确定硅藻新特征的来源，这些特征促成了其非凡的代谢和物种层面的多样性。有些性状是由远亲细菌（生命树中完全不同的王国）获得的基因编码的。其他基因似乎是由硅藻基因组内的作用过程产生的。该项目将为 250 个系统发育不同的硅藻物种生成基因组规模的数据。这些数据将用于：（1）推断进化关系，（2）识别新基因的来源（无论是内在的还是外在的），以及（3）将基因获取的模式和时间与新性状的起源相关联。研究将培训博士后研究员、本科生和研究生。硅藻估计有 200,000 种，是海洋和淡水浮游植物中最多样化的类群之一。这些微观“植物”在全球碳和氧循环中发挥着重要作用，为人类每五次呼吸产生一次氧气。它们制造的脂肪酸沿着食物链向上延伸，最终进入鱼类，人类从鱼类中获取鱼油。硅藻具有广泛的新特征，这些特征共同促进了它们在世界海洋中的崛起。最终，该项目将揭示大自然如何组装世界上最多样化和生态上最重要的谱系之一的镶嵌基因组。