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

在Timothy Ford博士的指导下，蒙大拿州立大学获得了一笔赠款。这笔拨款将为密歇根州立大学提供用于生物样品激光显微解剖和分离细胞基因组分析的仪器。单个细胞通常生活在较大的细胞群中。这对多细胞生物和单细胞生物都是如此。在多细胞生物中，细胞发育成各种细胞类型。这种分化是由于在发育过程中基因的程序化诱导或抑制。单细胞生物，包括细菌，通常生活在微生物群落中，其中单个细胞经历营养物质或有毒废物的梯度。这些梯度影响细菌的遗传反应，并最终影响营养物质的全球循环。在过去，细胞活动的生物学特征通常必须在大细胞群上进行，然后进行样品均质化。然而，由于并非种群内所有细胞的行为都相似，因此结果仅代表平均活动，而不涉及种群内单个细胞的活动，这些活动可能在空间定位的位置上有所不同。为了开始描述群体中单个细胞的活动，将获得仪器来从周围组织或细胞群落中分离和描述细胞。激光捕获显微解剖显微镜允许在单个细胞的规模上切除生物样品，而不会损害细胞或周围的群体。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发生在空间定位的细胞群体上的基因表达过程，而不需要样品均质化。这些研究将加强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十位研究人员的集体努力，这笔拨款将对他们的研究项目产生积极影响。特别地，这里提供的仪器将用于两个主要的研究工作，包括：(I)微生物生理学和生态学的研究，以及（II）发育生物学和神经生物学的研究。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（称为生物膜）中基因表达模式的表征，（ii）对有毒金属和金属地球化学循环的基因表达的表征，以及（iii）温泉微生物垫群落中微生物生态类型的表征。在发育生物学的研究中，研究人员将重点研究中枢神经系统发育过程和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，该仪器还将加强本科生、研究生和少数民族教育项目。在科学学科方面，密歇根州立大学有一个动手的本科教育计划。大多数理学系的大三和大四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论文工作。通过加强密歇根州立大学的基础设施，这笔资助将为这些学生提供使用最先进仪器的机会，这将成为他们未来在生物科学领域的不可或缺的组成部分。研究生也可以通过使用该仪器来提高他们的博士论文研究。这笔赠款将主要通过蒙大拿州的BRIN项目向社区提供外展服务，该项目旨在吸引蒙大拿州部落学院的美国原住民学生学习科学学科。BRIN专注于指导密歇根州立大学的部落学院教师和学生，并为这些学生和教师提供暑期本科研究项目。这里提供的资助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。这笔拨款还将对科学的重要性产生广泛的影响。近年来，DNA测序技术的进步为我们提供了大量来自各个生命领域的生物体的基因组序列信息。目前，生物科学的主要目标之一是开始描述这些基因的活动，其中许多尚未被赋予特定的功能。通过描述发生在原位或体内的基因表达事件，现在有可能对这些基因的作用以及这些基因如何使生物体（或细胞）在其特定的生态位中茁壮成长提出新的假设。

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.