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被勘探的生物储藏库，但人们对其成员的功能知之甚少。细菌似乎存在于复杂的社会网络中，依赖于最终影响社区功能的合作和交流。交流通常涉及细菌细胞到细胞的过程，称为群体感应(QS)，细菌利用这种过程来检测和控制它们对其他细菌的反应。虽然QS是在30多年前发现的，但人们对它的了解仅限于实验室中可以生长的不到1%的细菌，因此它的生态相关性尚不清楚。这个项目通过研究自然生境中QS基因的多样性和表达来解决这一知识差距，使用微生物垫作为自然栖息地的模型。微生物垫是地球上最古老和最多样化的生物系统之一，也是地球地球化学进化的关键。这些以微生物为主的栖息地是了解环境-细胞相互作用以及细胞-细胞相互作用的理想场所。这个项目将对微生物垫(所谓的“微生物元基因组”)中的所有细菌进行排序，并寻找可能的QS基因。然后，将在时间和空间上跟踪QS基因的表达，以确定哪些因素控制它们的活动。最后，QS基因的表达将与MAT中的主要细菌组相关联，以确定哪些组是MAT中的关键调节因子。该推广计划包括：(1)在全国著名的动物园举办关于“看不见的细菌世界”的公开展览；(2)在中小学开展“青年基因组科学家”计划；(3)让少数族裔研究生和本科生参与研究。利用本研究新发现的QS基因和其他数据库中的QS基因构建QS表达阵列，作为社区资源。这种表达阵列芯片可以被对自然和人类(病原体)系统中的细菌细胞-细胞通信感兴趣的科学家使用。