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用于生物样品激光显微切割和分离细胞基因组分析的仪器。 单个细胞通常生活在更大的细胞群中。 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或有毒废物的梯度。 这些梯度会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，细胞活性的生物学表征通常必须在样品均质化后对大的细胞群体进行。 然而，由于并非群体内的所有细胞都表现相似，因此结果仅代表平均活性，而不能解决群体内单个细胞的活性，其可能在空间定位位点处变化。 为了开始表征群体内单个细胞的活性，将获得仪器以从周围组织或细胞群落中分离和表征细胞。 激光捕获显微切割显微镜允许在单个细胞的尺度上切除生物样品，而不损伤细胞或周围群体。DNA微阵列仪器允许研究这些分离的细胞的基因表达模式。 因此，这两种仪器的结合将使MSU的研究人员能够更好地了解空间定位的细胞群体上发生的基因表达过程，而不需要样品均质化。 这些研究将增进对细胞如何分化成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）微生物的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㈠细菌群落基因表达模式的特征，称为生物膜，㈡对有毒金属和金属的地球化学循环的基因表达的特征，㈢温泉微生物垫群落微生物生态类型的特征。 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。 除了有利于在密歇根州立大学的研究，这种仪器将提高本科生，研究生和少数民族教育计划。 在科学学科，MSU有一个动手本科教育计划。 科学系的大多数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MSU的基础设施，这笔赠款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职业生涯中不可或缺的组成部分。 研究生也将能够提高他们的博士学位。该补助金将主要通过蒙大拿BRIN计划向社区提供外展服务，该计划旨在吸引蒙大拿州部落学院的美洲土著学生学习科学学科。 BRIN专注于指导密歇根州立大学校园内的部落学院教职员工和学生，并为这些学生和教职员工提供暑期本科研究项目。 这里提供的补助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。 这笔赠款也将产生广泛的科学影响。DNA测序技术的最新进展已经提供了来自所有生命领域的生物体的大量基因组序列信息。 目前，生物科学的主要目标之一是开始表征这些基因的活性，其中许多基因尚未被分配特定的功能。 通过表征原位或体内发生的基因表达事件，现在有可能开发关于这些基因的作用的新假设，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。

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.