DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolutionary and functional diversification of an ancient biopolymer in cnidarians.

论文研究：刺胞动物中古老生物聚合物的进化和功能多样化。

• 批准号: 1701082
• 负责人: Chris Amemiya
• 金额: $ 1.63万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1701082&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Evolutionary; functional; diversification

Chitin has recently has been discovered in a diverse range of animals and may serve as yet unknown functions. The hard shells of insects, shrimp and their relatives are made from chitin. But chitin is a natural polymer made by connecting a series of sugar-like molecules that now appears to be produced by many soft bodied animals. The proposed research examines the biology of chitin in the group containing corals, sea anemones, and jellyfish. Like other species in this group the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, lacks any hard body parts that would be obviously made of chitin. However, the genomes of these anemones have three genes that code for a chitin-producing enzyme. This research will investigate the distribution of chitin in these soft-bodied animals. The research will determine if chitin has an integral and unexpected role in the development of these organisms. Ultimately, this research will advance our understanding of how animals evolve novel structures using glycopolymers. This research will also provide training for a graduate student and foster outreach efforts for Girls in Science programs and mentorship of undergraduate researchers.Chitin's role in animal development and regeneration has not been widely explored, though prior work suggests that glycopolymers may have a widespread role in cell behavior and migration. Preliminary data show that chitin is present in cnidarian stinging cells (cnidae), as well as soft tissues. This study will survey the diversity of chitin synthase (CHS) genes across the cnidarians. The goal is to determine shared and lineage-specific changes to CHS genes that may correlate to diverse roles of chitin. Dozens of species of cnidarians from five cnidarian classes will be surveyed. Animals will be identified to species level and tissue collected from different tissue types. RNA will be Isolated and used to provide tissue specific profiles of which CHS genes are expressed in which tissues. Variation in the pattern of gene expression across species and tissues will allow inference of the evolutionary diversification of chitin as structural or nonstructural compound.

最近已经在各种动物中发现了几丁质，并且可能是未知的功能。昆虫，虾及其亲戚的硬壳是由几丁质制成的。 但是几丁质是通过连接一系列糖样分子来制造的天然聚合物，这些分子现在似乎是由许多软体动物产生的。 拟议的研究研究了包含珊瑚，海葵和水母的组中几丁质的生物学。像这一组中的其他物种一样，海葵nematostella vectensis缺乏明显由几丁质制成的硬体部位。但是，这些海葵的基因组具有三个代码为产生几丁质酶的基因。这项研究将研究这些柔软的动物中几丁质的分布。该研究将确定几丁质在这些生物的发展中是否具有不可或缺的作用。最终，这项研究将提高我们对动物如何使用糖聚合物发展新结构的理解。这项研究还将为研究生和培养科学计划中的女孩和本科研究人员指导的培训提供培训。吉他汀在动物发展和再生中的作用尚未得到广泛探讨，尽管先前的工作表明糖聚物可能在细胞行为和迁移中可能具有广泛的作用。初步数据表明，几丁质存在于Cnidarian刺痛细胞（Cnidae）以及软组织中。这项研究将调查奇数中几丁质合酶（CHS）基因的多样性。目的是确定可能与几丁质角色相关的CHS基因的共享和谱系特定变化。将调查来自五个Cnidarian类别的数十种cnidarians。动物将被鉴定为从不同组织类型收集的物种水平和组织。 RNA将被分离，并用于提供组织特定的特定谱，其中CHS基因在哪些组织中表达。跨物种和组织的基因表达模式的变化将允许将几丁质的进化多样化推断为结构性或非结构化合物。