Collaborative Research: Use of genome enabled tools to understand symbiosis

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Eric StabbCollaborative Research: Use of genome enabled tools to understand symbiosis IOS- 0841480The squid-Vibrio fischeri symbiosis has emerged as an engaging and important model for studying animal colonization by bacteria. The availability of several sequenced genomes in the genus Vibrio, has made this a more powerful system than ever for elucidating the complex gene networks that enable the contrasting lifestyles of bacteria. For this molecular genetics project which integrates research and education, the investigators will construct mutant bacteria with defects in each of the more than four thousand bacterial genes present in V. fischeri. This tool for discovery will then be used to characterize bacterial traits relevant to animal colonization in high-throughput assays by six research teams comprised almost entirely of undergraduate researchers. This library of mutants, along with data from the multiple parallel assays, will provide a high-resolution network of functionally-related datasets indexed by gene that will provide an unprecedented view of gene function in the context of the entire genomes. This library of mutants will be publicly available for bioinformatics analysis, and thus will fuel the next generation of experiments. Research increasingly involves high-throughput molecular genetic and genomics-based strategies for discovery that often necessitate the coordination of large teams. Therefore, the large number of students participating in this project will be well prepared for science careers in the 21st century.