BE/GENEN Coral Reef Genomics: A Genome Wide Approach to the Study of Cnidarian Symbiosis

共生相互作用在各种各样的植物和动物群落中是常见和重要的。 在更复杂的共生关系中，底栖海洋无脊椎动物，特别是刺胞动物和光合甲藻（虫黄藻）之间的互惠共生关系。 这种类型的共生在形成一个重要的海洋生态系统-珊瑚礁-方面发挥了关键作用。 人们对这些共同的生物关系的建立和维持的分子基础知之甚少。石珊瑚与其虫黄藻之间的共生关系非常容易受到环境因素的影响，例如海水温度升高和/或光照水平升高。全球变暖已经影响了世界各地的珊瑚礁，导致这些共生体的破坏（珊瑚漂白），导致许多珊瑚随后死亡。现在迫切需要更好地了解这些共生体功能完整性的分子和细胞相互作用。私家侦探们召集了一队珊瑚礁生物学家（Coffroth，Szirich）在研究海洋生态系统中的共生关系方面有着长期的实地经验，（Medina，Manohar，纳尔逊，Terry）在高通量基因组技术和分析由这种方法产生的数据方面具有广泛的专业知识，和教育专家（Tang），通过博物馆/水族馆环境中的教育项目，对公众进行宣传。PI团队中有几名成员是少数群体的一部分，其中包括六名女性（Coffroth，Manohar，Medina，Sziran，Tang和Terry），两名西班牙裔（麦地那，什邡），以及两名亚裔美国人（马诺哈尔，PI正在使用从表达序列标签（EST）数据开发的微阵列表达谱来识别参与宿主--在Montastraea faveolata互惠系统中的虫黄藻共生，来自加勒比热带礁区。他们正在进行基因操作实验，以确定这些基因的功能。 当伴随着细菌人工染色体（BAC）克隆含有它们的测序时，这种方法将有助于了解这些基因是如何在宿主和共生体中调节的。这项研究是第一次尝试使用基因表达的全基因组分析来研究一种非常重要的互惠关系。 研究所正在通过几个推广方案提供该项目产生的所有资源（EST、微阵列、cDNA和BAC文库）。更好地了解珊瑚礁生态系统中宿主-共生体的关系可能对大气和海洋科学、保护生物学以及珊瑚微生物疾病的研究和诊断产生影响。因此，该项目将引起更广泛的科学界的极大兴趣。

Symbiotic interactions are common and important in a wide variety of plant and animal communities. Among the more complex symbioses is the mutualism between benthic marine invertebrates, especially cnidarians, and photosynthetic dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae). This type of symbiosis has had a key role in the formation of an important marine ecosystem, the coral reef. Little is known about the molecular basis for the establishment and maintenance of these common biological relationships. The symbiosis between scleractinian corals and their zooxanthellae is highly susceptible to changes in environmental factors such as elevated seawater temperature and/or elevated light levels. Global warming has impacted coral reefs world wide by causing the disruption of these symbioses (coral bleaching), causing many corals to subsequently die. It is now urgent to gain a better understanding of the molecular and cellular interactions that are critical to the functional integrity of these symbioses. The PIs have assembled a team of coral reef biologists (Coffroth, Szmant) with a long record of field experience in studying symbiotic relationships in marine ecosystems, genome scientists (Medina, Manohar, Nelson, Terry) with wide-ranging expertise in high throughput genomic techniques and analysis of data generated by such methods, and educational experts (Tang) with high impact capabilities for public outreach through the educational programs in a museum/aquarium setting. The PIs have several members on the team who are part of minority groups, including six women (Coffroth, Manohar, Medina, Szmant, Tang, and Terry), two Hispanic (Medina, Szmant), and two Asian-Americans (Manohar, Tang).The PIs are using microarray expression profiling developed from expressed sequence tags (EST) data to identify genes and cellular pathways involved in the host-zooxanthellae symbiosis in the Montastraea faveolata mutualistic system from Caribbean tropical reef areas. They are performing gene manipulation experiments to establish function of these genes. When accompanied by sequencing of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones containing them, this approach will contribute to understanding how these genes are regulated in both the host and the symbiont. The research is the first attempt to look at a very important mutualistic relationship using a genome wide analysis of gene expression. The PIs are making all the resources generated by this project (ESTs, microarrays, cDNA and BAC libraries) available through several outreach programs. Gaining a better understanding of host-symbiont relationships in coral reef ecosystems can have implications for atmospheric and ocean sciences, conservation biology and the study and diagnosis of microbial diseases in corals. Consequently, this project will be of great interest to a broader scientific community.