Environmental diversity and genomics studies of algal groups important to understand the origin and evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes

藻类的环境多样性和基因组学研究对于理解光合真核生物的起源和进化很重要

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-04025
• 负责人: ReyesPrieto, Adrian
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=712113
• 关键词: Environmental; diversity; genomics; studies; algal

Background During the last fifteen years, investigations of microbial eukaryote (algae and other protists) diversity and abundance using high-throughput approaches have modified our understanding of biological processes at both micro (e.g., comparative genomics) and macro (e.g., primary production, carbon and sulfur cycling in oceans) scales. Studying the basic biology of algae and protists is not only relevant for the ecological perspective, but also is fundamental to understand the origin and evolution of the astonishing diversity of the eukaryote lineage. Proposal My central scientific interest is the study of algal basic biology at different levels to better understand molecular, cellular and ecological processes underlying the evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes. A main area of my research work is the investigation of microbial eukaryote groups important to untangle genomic events associated to the origin of the first photosynthetic eukaryotes. Some of the key algal and protist groups we study are rare in nature and finding new specimens represents important methodological challenges. This proposal aims to investigate microbial eukaryote diversity at three different scales. The first research objective will explore overall algal and protist diversity and abundance in microbial communities from coastal areas of Atlantic Canada affected by the progressive increase of the sea level. The second research objective is designed to improve and use cell-detection and cell-sampling approaches, developed recently in my laboratory, to identify and isolate rare algal specimens of evolutionary interest. The third objective aims to carry out detailed comparative genomic investigations of algal isolates collected during our previous and ongoing environmental surveys. Novelty and significance First, the study of eukaryote diversity and abundance in poorly explored coastal microbial communities will contribute to identify the ecological roles of algae and other protists in areas affected by increasing sea levels. This knowledge will help us identify biological indicators of ecosystem health and stability, and will increase our predictive capabilities about future changes and capacity to design effective conservation strategies. Second, our survey of eukaryote diversity will facilitate the design of novel sampling and identification methods to isolate microbial specimens relevant for evolutionary genomics investigations. Particularly, our algal diversity surveys will generate data to initiate a baseline of the distribution and abundance of rare groups of major interest, such glaucophyte algae, to investigate the evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes. Ultimately, we will contribute to have a better understanding of poorly studied algal groups.

背景 在过去的十五年中，使用高通量方法对微生物真核生物（藻类和其他生物学家）的多样性进行了研究，使我们对微观（例如比较基因组学）和宏观（例如，一级生产，碳和硫磺循环的海洋）量表的生物学过程的理解改变了我们对生物学过程的理解。研究藻类和生物学家的基本生物学不仅与生态学观点有关，而且对于了解真核生物谱系令人惊讶的多样性的起源和演变也是至关重要的。 提议 我的核心科学兴趣是对不同水平的藻类基本生物学的研究，以更好地了解光合作用真核生物演变的基础分子，细胞和生态过程。我的研究工作的一个主要领域是研究微生物真核生物群，对与第一个光合真核生物的起源相关的无障碍基因组事件很重要。我们研究的一些关键藻类和原生群体在本质上很少见，发现新标本代表了重要的方法论挑战。该建议旨在研究三种不同尺度的微生物真核生物多样性。第一个研究目标将探索来自加拿大沿海地区沿海地区的微生物社区的整体藻类和原生物的多样性，并受海平面逐步增加的影响。第二个研究目标旨在改善和使用最近在我的实验室中开发的细胞检测和细胞采样方法，以识别和隔离进化兴趣的罕见藻类标本。第三个目标旨在对我们以前和正在进行的环境调查期间收集的藻类分离株进行详细的比较基因组研究。 新颖性和意义 首先，对经过探索较差的沿海微生物群落中真核生物多样性和丰度的研究将有助于确定藻类和其他受海平面影响的地区的生态作用。这些知识将有助于我们确定生态系统健康和稳定性的生物学指标，并将提高我们对设计有效保护策略的未来变化和能力的预测能力。其次，我们对真核生物多样性的调查将促进新型抽样和鉴定方法的设计，以分离与进化基因组学相关的微生物标本。特别是，我们的藻类多样性调查将生成数据，以启动稀有感兴趣的稀有群体（例如绿木菌藻类）的分布和丰富性，以研究光合真核生物的演变。最终，我们将为对研究不足的藻类组有更好的了解。