International Research Fellowship Program: Metabolic Responses of Toxic Marine Diatoms to Planktonic Community Variations

[0754289]普林斯国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够到国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Emily K. Prince博士与德国耶拿弗里德里希-席勒大学的Georg Pohnert博士进行为期24个月的研究。为了抵御捕食者、吸引配偶、杀死竞争对手、避免病原体、建立共生关系等，生物体可以通过增加化合物的产生与群落相互作用。评估这些变化可能很困难，但假设化合物的持续生产提供了生物体如何相互作用的不完整图景。伪尼齐亚属的海洋硅藻对其他生物的存在会增加神经毒性化合物软骨藻酸的产生，这使得这个在生态和经济上都很重要的物种成为了解浮游生物如何对环境做出化学反应的良好模型。与其他有害藻华一样，伪硝氏藻华对人类和生态系统健康产生有害影响。由于这些藻华在全球范围内不断增加，并对渔业和沿海旅游业构成越来越大的全球威胁，因此了解调节伪nitzhia代谢和毒素产生的因素至关重要。伪nitzschia sp .可能通过调节特定化合物的产生来检测和响应群落的其他成员，从而改变生态相互作用。这个项目有三个主要目标。首先，利用UPLC-ToF质谱和GC- tof质谱创建代谢谱，并利用HPLC、GC和NMR鉴定特定化合物，确定伪nitzschia对竞争对手和相关细菌的代谢谱变化。第二个目标是表征软骨藻酸在对社区成员的反应中增加的机制。该项目的最终目标是通过测试特定化合物的产生和整体代谢谱的变化如何影响竞争的浮游植物和相关细菌，来确定伪nitzschia代谢谱变化的生态相关性。

0754289PrinceThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Emily K. Prince to work with Dr. Georg Pohnert at Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany.Organisms may interact with their community by increasing the production of compounds in order defend against predation, attract mates, kill competitors, avoid pathogens, establish symbiosis, etc. Assessing these changes can be difficult, but assuming constant production of compounds provides an incomplete picture of how organisms interact. Marine diatoms in the Pseudo-nitzschia genus increase the production of the neurotoxic compound domoic acid in response to the presence of other organisms, making this ecologically and economically important species a good model for understanding how planktonic organisms respond chemically to their environment. Like other harmful algal blooms, blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia are linked to deleterious effects on human and ecosystem health. Because these blooms are increasing worldwide, and represent an increasing global threat to fisheries and coastal tourism, understanding factors that regulate Pseudo-nitzchia metabolism and toxin production is crucial. Pseudo-nitzschia spp. likely detect and respond to other members of the community by modulating the production of specific compounds, resulting in altered ecological interactions. This project has three primary objectives. The first is to determine changes in the metabolic profile of Pseudo-nitzschia in response to competitors and associated bacteria, using UPLC-ToF MS and GC-ToF MS to create metabolic profiles, and HPLC, GC, and NMR to identify specific compounds. The second objective is to characterize of the mechanism of by which domoic acid increases in response to members of the community. The final objective of this project is to determine the ecological relevance of changes to Pseudo-nitzschia's metabolic profile by testing how changes in the production of specific compounds and overall metabolic profile effect competing phytoplankton and associated bacteria.