NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011

这一行动为2011财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，生物学与数学和物理科学的交叉点。该研究金支持研究员在生物学和数学科学交叉点的主办实验室的研究和培训计划。Talina Konotchick的研究和培训计划的标题是“海洋浮游植物群落的比较元转录组学”。“该研究金的主办机构是J.克雷格文特尔研究所（JCVI），赞助科学家安德鲁艾伦博士和Shibu Yooseph博士。海洋浮游植物群落对地球初级生产力的贡献很大。 被称为元转录组的社区一级基因表达的大规模数据集已可用于这些重要的海洋生物。 本研究考察了来自几个真实世界真核海洋浮游植物群落的元转录组，以了解定义浮游植物在特定环境中生长的集体生理和生化过程以及进化关系。 这项研究提高了我们预测浮游植物对海洋温度升高、pH值变化以及气候变化引起的分层变化的反应和恢复能力。快速增长的环境基因组学领域和最近几个真核浮游植物基因组的可用性增加了比较分析的能力，并提供了一个独特的机会，开发分析和建模工具，可能会超出这组organis.Training目标，包括建立数学和统计背景，生物动机的问题转化为可检验的假设。 数学建模的物理数据的多样性，丰度和基因的表达水平参与代谢的各个方面发挥了核心作用，在表征海洋浮游植物分布的物理-生物方面。更广泛的影响包括通过与JCVI教育部门开发K-12教育模块以及通过积极指导和培训本科生实习生来鼓励下一代基因组研究人员的教育推广。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011, Intersections of Biology and Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow at the intersection of biology and mathematical science. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Talina Konotchick is "Comparative Metatranscriptomics of Marine Phytoplankton Communities." The host institution for this fellowship is the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) with sponsoring scientists Drs. Andrew Allen and Shibu Yooseph. Marine phytoplankton communities contribute a significant fraction of the primary productivity of the planet. Large-scale datasets of community-level gene expression, termed the metatranscriptome, have become available for these important organisms in the oceans. This research examines metatranscriptomes from several real-world eukaryotic marine phytoplankton communities to understand the collective physiological and biochemical processes and evolutionary relationships that define phytoplankton growing in a particular environment. The research advances our ability to predict phytoplankton response and resilience to increased ocean temperatures, shifts in pH, and changes in stratification due to changing climate. The rapidly growing field of environmental genomics and the recent availability of several eukaryotic phytoplankton genomes have increased capacity for comparative analyses and provide a unique opportunity to develop analytical and modeling tools that may extend beyond this group of organisms.Training objectives include establishing the mathematical and statistical background to translate biologically motivated questions into testable hypotheses. Mathematical modeling of physical data with the diversity, abundance, and expression level of genes involved in various aspects of metabolism plays a central role in characterizing the physical-biological aspects of marine phytoplankton distributions. Broader impacts include educational outreach to encourage the next generation of genomic researchers through the development of K-12 educational modules with the JCVI education department and through active mentoring and training of undergraduate interns.