Collaborative Research: Organism-environment interactions - impact of cultural eutrophication on Daphnia tracked by genomics, physiology and resurrection ecology

合作研究：生物体与环境的相互作用——通过基因组学、生理学和复活生态学追踪文化富营养化对水蚤的影响

• 批准号: 0924289
• 负责人: Lawrence Weider
• 金额: $ 36.37万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0924289&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Organism; environment; interactions

Given the important role that organisms (including man) play in ecosystem processes, it is surprising that little work has examined how man-made environmental changes affect the way organisms evolve and adapt. In a planned 36-month project, the PIs will use an integrated approach involving genetic/genomic, physiological, and 'resurrection ecology' methods to examine how cultural eutrophication (i.e., enrichment of freshwater systems with nutrients such as phosphorus) influences evolutionary changes in organisms. The waterflea, Daphnia pulex, which plays a major role in freshwater food webs (i.e. it eats algae/bacteria and in turn is fed upon by fish), will serve as the model organism. Daphnia are ideal for such studies because they produce resting eggs that can lay dormant in lake sediments for long periods of time. Decades-old eggs can be induced to hatch (i.e. 'resurrection ecology') and viable DNA can be extracted from eggs that are centuries old. Moreover, the D. pulex genome has been sequenced and genetic/genomic methods (i.e. gene expression) are in place to study how changes in eutrophication (phosphorus-level) patterns over the past century have influenced how an organism like a daphniid can respond to ecosystem/environmental change. The PIs expect to find distinct changes in the genetic structure and physiological mechanisms of different populations 'resurrected' from different sediment (time) layers in the resting egg bank from lakes that differ in eutrophication history. Results from this cross-disciplinary study will provide an excellent example of how man-made environmental changes (via eutrophication) influence natural (freshwater) ecosystems. Academic (i.e. university) researchers, applied researchers (e.g., lake managers), and members of the general public (i.e. recreational users) should be keenly interested in the results from this project. Educational training opportunities will include Native American high school interns as research assistants. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, while presentations to both scholarly and general-public audiences are planned.

鉴于生物体（包括人类）在生态系统过程中发挥的重要作用，令人惊讶的是，很少有工作研究人为环境变化如何影响生物体的进化和适应。 在一个为期36个月的计划中，PI将使用一种综合方法，涉及遗传/基因组，生理和“复活生态学”方法，以研究文化富营养化（即，富营养化的淡水系统（如磷）影响生物体的进化变化。 水蚤，蚤状水蚤，在淡水食物网中起着重要作用（即它吃藻类/细菌，反过来又被鱼类喂养），将作为模式生物。 水蚤是此类研究的理想对象，因为它们产生的休眠卵可以在湖泊沉积物中长时间休眠。几十年的鸡蛋可以被诱导孵化（即“复活生态学”），可以从几百年的鸡蛋中提取可行的DNA。 此外，D.已对pulex的基因组进行了测序，并采用了遗传/基因组方法（即基因表达），以研究过去世纪富营养化（磷水平）模式的变化如何影响像水蚤这样的生物体对生态系统/环境变化的反应。 PI希望在富营养化历史不同的湖泊中的休眠卵库的不同沉积物（时间）层中“复活”的不同种群的遗传结构和生理机制中找到不同的变化。 这项跨学科研究的结果将为人为环境变化（通过富营养化）如何影响自然（淡水）生态系统提供一个很好的例子。 学术（即大学）研究人员，应用研究人员（例如，湖泊管理者）和公众（即娱乐用户）应该对这个项目的结果非常感兴趣。 教育培训机会将包括美洲土著高中实习生作为研究助理。 研究结果将发表在同行评审的期刊上，同时计划向学术界和一般公众介绍。