Acquisition of a Laser Capture Microdissection Microscope and Functional Genomics Facility for Microbial Ecology and Developmental Biology

在蒂莫西·福特博士的指导下，蒙大拿州立大学获得了一笔赠款。这笔赠款将为密歇根州立大学提供激光显微解剖生物样本和对分离细胞进行基因组分析的仪器。单个细胞通常生活在较大的细胞群体中。对于多细胞生物体和单细胞生物体都是如此。在多细胞生物体中，细胞发育成各种类型的细胞。这种分化是由于发育过程中基因的程序性诱导或抑制。单细胞生物体，包括细菌，通常生活在微生物群落中，在那里单个细胞经历营养或有毒废物的梯度。这些梯度影响细菌的遗传反应，并最终影响营养的全球循环。过去，在样品均质化之后，细胞活动的生物学特征通常必须在大的细胞群体上进行。然而，由于不是种群中的所有细胞行为相似，结果仅代表平均活动，而不涉及种群内单个细胞的活动，这在空间上的局部位置可能会有所不同。为了开始表征种群中单个细胞的活动，将获得从周围组织或细胞群落中分离和表征细胞的仪器。激光捕获显微解剖显微镜允许对单个细胞规模的生物样本进行切除，而不会对细胞或周围的种群造成损害。DNA微阵列仪器允许研究这些分离细胞的基因表达模式。因此，这两种仪器的结合将使密歇根州立大学的研究人员能够更好地了解在空间上定位的细胞群体上发生的基因表达过程，而不需要样本均质。这些研究将加深对细胞如何分化为多细胞生物，以及单细胞生物如何响应和影响周围环境的理解。这项拨款提案代表了蒙大拿州立大学10名研究人员的集体努力，这笔拨款将对他们的研究计划产生积极影响。特别是，这里提供的仪器将用于两个主要的研究工作，包括：(I)研究微生物的生理学和生态学；(Ii)研究发育生物学和神经生物学。在微生物生态学研究中，这些仪器将用于研究项目，包括(I)细菌群落中的基因表达模式，即所谓的生物膜，(Ii)对有毒金属的响应的基因表达的特征，以及金属的地球化学循环，以及(Iii)温泉微生物垫群落中的微生物生态型的特征。在发育生物学研究中，研究人员将专注于实验，包括(I)参与中枢神经系统发育的过程，以及(Ii)受损神经细胞修复过程中的基因表达。除了对密歇根州立大学的研究有益之外，这种工具还将促进本科生、研究生和少数族裔教育项目的发展。在科学学科方面，密歇根州立大学有一个实践的本科生教育计划。科学系的大多数大三和大四的本科生都进行独立的研究项目，这些项目有助于他们的本科生论文工作。通过加强密歇根州立大学的基础设施，这笔助学金将为这些学生提供使用最先进的仪器的机会，这将成为他们未来生物科学职业生涯中不可或缺的组成部分。研究生还将能够通过使用这种工具来加强他们的博士论文研究。这笔赠款将主要通过蒙大拿州布林计划向社区提供推广，该计划旨在吸引蒙大拿州部落学院的美国原住民学生进入科学学科。布林专注于指导密歇根州立大学校园内的部落学院教职员工，并为这些学生和教职员工提供夏季本科生研究项目。这里提供的助学金将使这些学生熟悉现代学术和工业实验室中使用的最先进的仪器。这笔赠款还将产生广泛的科学重要性影响。DNA测序技术的最新进展提供了来自生命各个领域的大量生物基因组序列信息。目前，生物科学的主要目标之一是开始表征这些基因的活动，其中许多还没有被赋予特定的功能。通过表征发生在原位或体内的基因表达事件，现在可以提出关于这些基因的作用的新假说，以及这些基因如何使有机体(或细胞)在其特定的生态位中茁壮成长。

A grant has been awarded to Montana State University under the direction of Dr. Timothy Ford. The grant will provide MSU with instrumentation for laser microdissection of biological samples and for genomic analysis of the isolated cells. Individual cells often live within larger cell populations. This is true both for multicellular organisms and for single-cell organisms. In multicellular organisms, cells develop into various cell types. This differentiation is due to the programmed induction or repression of genes during the developmental process. Single-cell organisms, including bacteria, often live in microbial communities, where individual cells experience gradients of nutrients or toxic waste product. These gradients affect the genetic responses of bacteria, and ultimately impact the global cycling of nutrients. In the past, biological characterizations of cellular activities often had to be performed on large cell populations, following sample homogenization. However, since not all cells within a population behave similarly, the results only represent average activities, and do not address the activities of individual cells within the population, which may vary at spatially localized sites. To begin characterizing the activities of individual cells within populations, instrumentation will be acquired to isolate and characterize cells from surrounding tissues or cellular communities. The laser capture microdissection microscope allows the excision of biological samples on the scale of an individual cell without damage to the cell or to the surrounding population. The DNA microarray instrumentation, allows the study of gene expression patterns of these isolated cells. Therefore, the combination of these two instruments will allow investigators at MSU to gain a better understanding of gene expression processes that occur on spatially localized populations of cells, without the need for sample homogenization. These studies will enhance the understanding of how cells differentiate into multicellular organisms, and how single-cell organisms respond to and impact the surrounding environment.This grant proposal represented the collective efforts of ten researchers at Montana State University, and the grant will have a positive impact on their research programs. In particular, the instrumentation provided here will be used for two main research endeavors that include: (I) the study of the physiology and ecology of microorganisms, and (II) the study of developmental biology and neurobiology. In the microbial ecology studies, the instruments will be used for research projects including (i) characterization of gene expression patterns in bacterial communities, known as biofilms, (ii) characterization of gene expression in response to toxic metals, and in the geochemical cycling of metals, and (iii) characterization of microbial ecotypes in hot-spring microbial mat communities. In the developmental biology studies, investigators will focus on experiments including (i) processes involved in the development of the central nervous system, and (ii) gene expression during the repair of damaged nerve cells. In addition to the benefit to research at MSU, this instrumentation will enhance undergraduate, graduate and minority educational programs. In the scientific disciplines, MSU has a hands-on undergraduate educational program. Most junior and senior undergraduate students in the science departments perform independent research projects that contribute to their undergraduate thesis work. By enhancing the infrastructure at MSU, this grant will provide these students with the opportunity to use state of the art instrumentation, that will become an integral component for their future careers in the biological sciences. Graduate students will also be able to enhance their Ph.D. thesis studies through the use of this instrumentation.This grant will provide outreach to the community primarily through the Montana BRIN program, designed to attract Native American students from Montana's tribal colleges to scientific disciplines. BRIN concentrates on mentoring tribal college faculty and students on the MSU campus, and includes summer undergraduate research programs for these students and faculty. The grant provided here will allow these students to become familiar with state-of-the-art instrumentation used in modern academic and industrial laboratories. This grant will also have a broad impact of scientific importance. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology have provided a tremendous amount of genome sequence information of organisms from all domains of life. Presently, one of the main goals in the biological sciences, is to begin characterizing the activities of these genes, many of which have not yet been assigned a specific function. By characterizing gene expression events that occur in situ or in vivo, it will now be possible to develop new hypotheses on the role of these genes, and how these genes enable an organism (or cell) to thrive in its particular ecological niche.