EAGER: Gene expression patterns in high C02-adapted Trichodesmium

生物地球化学关键海洋生物，如固定氮气的蓝藻Trichodesum，适应快速变化的环境的潜力，是一个知之甚少但却是未来海洋食物网和元素循环的关键决定因素。尽管海洋科学界可用的分子工具的复杂性呈指数级增长，但尚未有研究将这些方法与微生物进化实验结合起来应用于相关海洋生物，例如由R.E.Lenski及其同事为模式肠道细菌Escherichia coli开创的那些微生物进化实验。智慧价值：在这个迫切的项目中，PI将进行一种探索性方法，使用平铺微阵列方法来评估在长期(3年)高二氧化碳适应实验中保持的Trichodesum培养物基因组编码区和非编码区的表达变化。这项工作的目的是证明进化实验技术和最先进的基因表达方法的新组合可以用来产生对关键海洋微生物(如毛霉菌)响应环境变化变量选择的适应性变化的独特见解。总体目标是增加我们对进化如何塑造海洋生物对未来海洋化学和气候变化的反应的机械理解。广泛影响：该项目将帮助支持和培训一名新的南加州大学博士生，研究活动将包括南加州大学生物学专业的本科生。南加州大学资助的“2020”计划旨在整合南加州地区应对气候变化的科学和社会对策，每年举办一系列公众宣传和专业讨论会，将大大加强该项目的公共教育和宣传工作。毛霉是一个重要的海洋功能基团，其生长和固氮模式的任何进化驱动的变化都会对海洋生态、碳循环和支撑重要生物资源的食物链产生重大影响。这个迫切的项目最大的科学影响可能是验证一种开创性的新方法，以帮助确定对当今海洋生物地球化学循环至关重要的微生物将如何适应海洋生态系统预期和前所未有的变化速度。

The potential for biogeochemically-critical marine organisms, such as the N2-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium, to adapt to a rapidly changing environment is a poorly understood but key determinant of future ocean food webs and elemental cycles. Despite an exponential increase in the sophistication of molecular tools available to the ocean science community, no study has yet applied these methods to relevant marine organisms in conjunction with microbial evolution experiments such as those pioneered by R.E. Lenski and colleagues for the model enteric bacterium Escherichia coli.Intellectual Merit:In this EAGER project, the PIs will conduct an exploratory approach that uses tiled microarray methods to evaluate changes in the expression of both coding and non-coding regions of the genome in Trichodesmium cultures that have been maintained in long-term (3 years) high CO2 adaptation experiments. The objective of this work is to demonstrate that a novel combination of evolutionary experimental techniques and state-of-the-art gene expression methods can be used to yield unique insights into adaptive changes in keystone marine micro-organisms such as Trichodesmium in response to selection by environmental change variables. The over-arching goal is to increase our mechanistic understanding of the ways that evolution could shape the responses of marine biota to future changes in ocean chemistry and climate.Broader Impacts:This project will help support and train a new USC Ph.D. student, and research activities will include USC undergraduate biology majors. Public education and communication efforts for this project will be greatly enhanced by an annual series of public outreach and professional colloquia sponsored by a USC-funded "2020" initiative to integrate scientific and societal responses to climate change in the Southern California region. Any evolution-driven shifts in the growth and N2 fixation patterns of Trichodesmium, a keystone oceanic functional group, have large consequences for marine ecology, carbon cycling, and the food chains that support important living resources. The biggest scientific impact of this EAGER project could be to offer verification of a pioneering new approach to help determine how the microbes that are fundamental to today's ocean biogeochemical cycles will adapt to anticipated and unprecedented rates of change in marine ecosystems.