Role of Viruses in the Life Cycle and Endosymbiosis of a Sea Slug

病毒在海蛞蝓生命周期和内共生中的作用

• 批准号: 0090118
• 负责人: Sidney Pierce
• 金额: $ 6.5万
• 依托单位: University of South Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-04-15 至 2003-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0090118&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Role; Viruses; Life; Cycle; Endosymbiosis

The digestive cells of the sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, have an endosymbiotic association with chloroplasts from the alga, Vaucheria litorea. These chloroplasts, obtained from ingested Vaucheria, remain viable and functioning within the sea slug for months. The PIs have previously demonstrated that the captive, functional plastids synthesize proteins, including those that seem to be coded for in the slug genome. They have recently identified some of those proteins as belonging to the light harvesting complex I (LHCI) and have developed preliminary molecular evidence for the presence of the LCHI gene in the slug genomic DNA. For this proof-of-concept award, the PIs will conduct experiments designed to identify plastid protein genes in the host cell genome. Such transfers of genes from the symbiont into the host cell nucleus must certainly have been associated with the mechanism of the widely accepted endosymbiotic origin of intracellular organelles, such as mitochondria and chloroplasts. If a successful interspecies gene transfer between an alga and a slug mediated by an endogenous virus can be demonstrated in the case of E. chlorotica, then an exemplary mechanism for this process will have been provided.

海懒的消化细胞与海藻Vuchheria litorea的叶绿体具有内共生关系。这些从被摄取的Vucheria中获得的叶绿体，在几个月的时间里仍然活着，并在海螺中发挥作用。PI先前已经证明，圈养的功能质体合成蛋白质，包括似乎在鼻涕虫基因组中编码的那些蛋白质。他们最近鉴定了其中一些蛋白质属于捕光复合体I(LHCI)，并开发了初步的分子证据，证明在鼻涕虫基因组DNA中存在LCHI基因。对于这个概念验证奖，PI将进行旨在识别宿主细胞基因组中的叶绿体蛋白基因的实验。这种从共生体到宿主细胞核的基因转移肯定与被广泛接受的细胞内细胞器(如线粒体和叶绿体)内共生起源的机制有关。如果在氯化大肠杆菌的例子中，能够证明由内源病毒介导的藻类和鼻涕虫之间的跨物种基因转移是成功的，那么这一过程就提供了一个示范机制。