Marine Biotechnology Fellowship: Genetic Exchange in the Marine Environment

海洋生物技术奖学金：海洋环境中的基因交换

• 批准号: 9023844
• 负责人: Lita Proctor
• 金额: $ 8.4万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-11-01 至 1993-10-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9023844&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Marine; Biotechnology; Fellowship; Genetic; Exchange

The focus of this research is to study gene transfer among marine microbial communities through the application of molecular techniques that avoid the selective process of isolation and cultivation. Since genetic material can be transferred to receptive hosts without gene expression, this study will be designed to detect the presence of marker gene sequences transferred by phage transduction to recipient microbial hosts and complemented with studies designed to determine the frequency of subsequent gene expression of the marker sequences in recipient hosts. Biotintylated probes have been developed for visualizing the presence of viral sequences in virus-infected cells and, because of its sensitivity and specificity, is the most appropriate approach for tracking specific gene sequences in native microbial communities. This methodology will be applied to the study of plasmid DNA transduction by a generalized transducing vibriophage. The ecologically important role of particulate organic matter on the growth rate of the donor host, vibriophages, gene recipient hosts, phage/host encounter rates, bacteriophage survival and gene transduction frequency will be investigated. The results of these studies on gene transduction in vibriophages isolated from the marine environment will serve as a model for gene transfer in marine microorganisms and indicate the potential importance of gene transfer in native marine microbial communities.

这项研究的重点是通过应用分子技术来研究海洋微生物群落之间的基因转移，避免了选择性的分离和培养过程。由于遗传物质可以在没有基因表达的情况下转移到受体宿主，因此本研究旨在检测通过噬菌体转导转移到受体微生物宿主的标记基因序列的存在，并辅之以旨在确定标记序列在受体宿主中后续基因表达频率的研究。生物标记探针已被开发用于可视化病毒感染细胞中病毒序列的存在，由于其敏感性和特异性，是在本地微生物群落中跟踪特定基因序列的最合适的方法。这一方法学将应用于一般转导噬菌体转导质粒DNA的研究。研究颗粒有机物对供体宿主、噬菌体、基因受体宿主的生长速度、噬菌体/宿主相遇率、噬菌体存活率和基因转导频率的重要生态作用。这些从海洋环境中分离的噬菌体基因转导的研究结果将作为海洋微生物基因转移的模型，并表明基因转移在本地海洋微生物群落中的潜在重要性。