CAREER: Genomic Networks for Cold-Adaptation in Embryos of Polar Marine Invertebrates

虽然冷海洋生态系统占地球生物圈的72%，但它们仍然很少有人居住，而且相对未被开发，特别是在后生动物门方面。因此，能够存在于细胞内冷冻边界的少数动物代表了探索基因组水平的环境适应过程的理想系统。了解生物圈边缘的生命可能会对在激烈的选择压力下生存所必需的基本基因组过程提供重要的见解。本基因组网络适应机制的研究集中在一个实验系统上，该系统面临着低温生存能力的巨大挑战：两种南极棘皮动物，海星Odontaster validus和海胆Sterechinus neumayeri在-1.8℃的海水温度下的胚胎发育。该项目策略将量化温度对早期发育过程中基因表达和蛋白质周转网络的影响，使用贝叶斯网络分析来确定表达水平与固定协同相互作用相关的基因和蛋白质簇。最终，有一个简单的问题需要解决：胚胎在极端环境中发育是更困难（复杂）还是更简单？为了回答这个问题，研究计划将破译网络拓扑结构和子网结构，以揭示在这种极地环境中与胚胎发育相关的基因连接模式。这是环境基因组学的新领域，PI将通过将他的研究经验扩展到计算网络分析来探索。总的来说，在未来环境科学的发展中，特别是在应用基因组规模技术来回答生态规模问题方面，对综合生物学家有很大的需求。这个职业计划的教育目标集中在两个层面上，就环境基因组学发展领域的有趣的年轻学生而言：1)增加被环境研究吸引的科学家的种族多样性，2)增加对环境研究中职业机会的认识。这些教育目标被纳入研究计划，以吸引学生在南极等极端环境中工作的兴奋，并使他们对基因组水平的研究可以揭示生物体如何适应特定栖息地的见解感兴趣。在像南极洲这样偏远极端的环境中工作总是一个挑战。然而，这项工作的冒险性质可以用来建立对本科生和一般公众都有很高兴趣的教育和推广组成部分。拟议的计划将通过几种方式把在南极洲工作的经验带给更多的听众。其中包括：环境基因组学的项目主题将纳入特拉华大学目前正在开发的一门新的生物信息学课程；实施实习计划，让少数民族本科生在美国进行暑期研究，然后带学生到南极洲参与研究；通过与特拉华大学海洋科学公共教育办公室合作的一个项目，K-12教育项目将把在南极洲工作的兴奋带给成千上万的孩子（美国和国际）。

Although the cold ocean ecosystems comprise seventy-two percent of the biosphere on Earth by volume, they remain sparsely inhabited and relatively unexploited, particularly in terms of metazoan phyla. Consequently, the few animals that can exist at this border of intracellular freezing represent ideal systems for exploring genomic-level processes of environmental adaptations. Understanding life at a margin of the biosphere is likely to convey significant insights into the essential genomic processes necessary for survival under intense selection pressures. This study of adaptive mechanisms in genomic networks focuses on an experimental system that faces a formidable challenge for viability at low water temperatures: embryonic development at sea water temperatures of -1.8 o C in two Antarctic echinoderms, the sea star Odontaster validus and the sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri. The project strategy will quantify temperature effects on gene expression and protein turnover networks during early development using a Bayesian network analysis to identify clusters of genes and proteins whose expression levels are associated in fixed, synergistic interactions. Ultimately, there is a simple question to be addressed: Is it more or less difficult (complex) for an embryo to develop in an extreme environment? To answer this question, the research plan will decipher network topologies and subnet structuring to uncover gene connectivity patterns associated with embryo development in this polar environment. This is the new area of Environmental Genomics that the PI will explore by expanding his research experience into computational network analyses. Overall, there is a significant need for integrative biologists in the future development of environmental sciences, particularly for the application of genomic-scale technologies to answer ecological-scale questions. The educational goals of this CAREER proposal are focused at two levels in terms of interesting young students in the developing field of environmental genomics: 1) increasing the racial diversity of the scientists attracted to environmental research, and 2) increasing the awareness of career opportunities within environmental research.These educational objectives are incorporated into the research plan to engage students with the excitement of working in an extreme environment such as Antarctica and to interest them in the insights that genome-level research can reveal about how organisms are adapted to specific habitats. Working in a remote, extreme environment such as Antarctica is always a challenge. However, the adventurous nature of the work can be utilized to establish educational and outreach components of high interest to both undergraduate students and the public in general. The proposed plan will bring the experience of working in Antarctica to a larger audience through several means. These include the following: the project theme of environmental genomics will be incorporated into a new Bioinformatics curriculum currently being developed at the University of Delaware; an intern program will be implemented to involved minority undergraduate students in summer research in the United States and then to bring the students to Antarctica to participate in the research; and a K-12 education program will bring the excitement of working in Antarctica to the classrooms of thousands of children (U.S. and international) through a program produced with the Marine Science Public Education Office at the University of Delaware.