En-Gen: Bacterial Communication in Microbial Mats: A Metagenomic Approach to Understanding Quorum Sensing Gene Diversity and Expression

En-Gen：微生物垫中的细菌通讯：理解群体感应基因多样性和表达的宏基因组方法

• 批准号: 0723707
• 负责人: Robert Norman
• 金额: $ 77.39万
• 依托单位: University South Carolina Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0723707&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: En; Gen; Bacterial; Communication; Microbial

The bacterial world is the largest unexplored biological reservoir on Earth, yet little is known about how its members function. Bacteria appear to exist in complex social networks which depend on cooperation and communication that ultimately affect community function. Communication often involves a bacterial cell-to-cell process called quorum sensing (QS), and is used by bacteria to detect and control their responses to other bacteria. While QS was discovered over three decades ago, understanding has been limited to the less than 1% of all bacteria that can be grown in the laboratory so its ecological relevance is not yet clear. This project addresses this knowledge gap through a study of the diversity and expression of QS genes in natural habitats, using microbial mats as the model natural habitat. Microbial mats are one of the oldest and most diverse biological systems on Earth, and have been key to Earth's geochemical evolution. These microbially-dominated habitats are ideal for understanding environment-cell interactions as well as cell-cell interactions. This project will sequence all of the bacteria in the microbial mat (the so-called ' microbial metagenome') and look for possible QS genes. Then QS gene expression will be followed over time and space to determine what factors control their activities. Finally, QS gene expression will be correlated with major groups of bacteria in the mat in order to determine which groups are the key regulators in the mat. The outreach program includes: (1) a public exhibit on the 'Unseen World of Bacteria' at a nationally-renowned Zoo; (2) development of a 'Young Genomic Scientist' program in primary/secondary schools; (3) involvement of minority graduate and undergraduate students in research. A QS expression array with the newly-discovered QS genes from this study and those from other databases will be developed as a community resource. This expression array chip can be used by scientists interested in bacterial cell-cell communication in natural and in human (pathogen) systems.

细菌世界是地球上最大的未开发的生物储层，但对其成员的功能知之甚少。 细菌似乎存在于复杂的社交网络中，这些社交网络依赖于最终影响社区功能的合作和交流。 沟通通常涉及称为Quorum Sensing（QS）的细菌细胞对细胞间工艺，并被细菌用于检测和控制其对其他细菌的反应。 尽管QS是在三十年前发现的，但理解仅限于在实验室中可以种植的所有细菌的不到1％，因此其生态相关性尚不清楚。 该项目通过使用微生物垫作为模型自然栖息地的自然栖息地中QS基因的多样性和表达来解决这一知识差距。微生物垫是地球上最古老，最多样化的生物系统之一，它是地球地球化学进化的关键。 这些以微生物为主的栖息地非常适合理解环境细胞相互作用以及细胞 - 细胞相互作用。该项目将对微生物垫（所谓的“微生物元基因组”）中的所有细菌进行测序，并寻找可能的QS基因。 然后将遵循QS基因表达，以确定哪些因素控制其活动。 最后，QS基因表达将与MAT中的主要细菌组相关，以确定哪些组是MAT中的关键调节剂。 外展计划包括：（1）在一个全国知名的动物园上举行的关于“看不见细菌世界”的公开展览； （2）在中/中学开发“年轻基因组科学家”计划； （3）少数群体毕业生和本科生参与研究。 本研究的新发现的QS基因以及其他数据库的QS表达阵列将作为社区资源开发。 对天然和人（病原体）系统中细菌细胞 - 细胞通信感兴趣的科学家可以使用此表达阵列芯片。