SGER: Extremely Large Insert Clone Libraries for Functional Characterization of Uncultured Archaea

该项目旨在将人类基因组计划衍生的技术推向目前的极限，以表征未培养的海洋古细菌的基因组。这些古细菌占世界海洋中所有原核细胞的15%或更多，但它们的生物化学、生理学和生态学意义尚不清楚。该方法包括在细菌人工染色体（BAC）克隆文库中从未培养的浮游古生菌中分离出极大（150-300 kb）的基因组片段。BAC克隆文库具有如此巨大的插入，以前从未报道过混合天然微生物群体。通过突破目前基因组技术的限制，并将其应用于混合种群，研究人员旨在提高目前对神秘但重要的未培养微生物的认识，特别是海洋浮游古生菌。这项工作还将为未培养微生物的基因组和功能表征以及确定其功能特性提供改进的通用方法。

This project is intended to push technologies derived from the human genome project to their current limits, to characterize the genomes of uncultivated marine archaea. These archaea represent 15% or more of all prokaryotic cells in the worlds oceans, yet their biochemistry, physiology, and ecological significance is unknown. The approach involves isolation of extremely large (150-300 kb) genomic fragments from uncultivated planktonic archaea in Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) clone libraries. A BAC clone library with such extremely large inserts has never before been reported from a mixed natural microbial population. By pushing the current limits of genomic technologies and applying them in mixed populations, the investigators aim to improve the current knowledge of enigmatic but important uncultivated microbes, specifically marine planktonic archaea. The work will also provide improved generic methodologies for the genomic and functional characterization of uncultivated microorganisms and determination of their functional properties.