Molecular determinants of survival in non-growing bacteria

非生长细菌生存的分子决定因素

• 批准号: 1157304
• 负责人: Caroline Harwood
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1157304&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Molecular; determinants; survival; non; growing

This project will begin to answer the fundamental question of how bacteria survive long-term starvation. A great deal is known about the mechanics of how bacteria grow and multiply. By contrast, little is known about how bacteria survive long periods of nutrient starvation. This is a considerable knowledge gap given that natural environments tend to be nutrient-poor. As a consequence bacteria are forced to persist in a state of non-growth or very slow growth. How do bacteria survive long-term starvation? What is the genetic and physiological basis for this? When cells do die ? what are the most common causes of death? The proposed research will focus on a bacterium named Rhodopseudomonas palustris that has been identified as a good model for these studies. This bacterium stays alive for periods of weeks in a laboratory setting in a starved non-growing state. A comprehensive program of mutagenesis and high throughput DNA sequencing technology will define genes that contribute to starvation survival. These genes will be validated and their role in starvation survival defined in an iterative process of mutagenesis, laboratory studies and gene expression studies. Broader impacts. The project will establish a user group in functional genomics of microbes. A group of eighteen investigators at the University of Washington who focus on microbial biology will form the core of this user group. The group will develop novel experimental and computational tools for data analysis that will be freely available to the scientific community. This will also serve as a focal point to train graduate students and undergraduates to apply global systems biology approaches to bacteria. The user group will seek to engage faculty and students from smaller schools in the area, including University of Puget Sound, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle University, Evergreen College, Bellevue Community College, and the Seattle Community Colleges. This project will also support a female postdoctoral fellow who will be trained to integrate data from bacterial genetics, physiology and computational analyses to answer questions about how cells function at the whole cell level. Finally, this research will lead to a better understanding of the role of non-growing microbes, which dominate in nature, and drive the global carbon and nitrogen cycles. It will also promote more efficient use of non-growing microbes as cell factories for production of value added products like biofuels.

这个项目将开始回答细菌如何在长期饥饿中生存的基本问题。关于细菌如何生长和繁殖的机制，我们已经了解了很多。相比之下，人们对细菌如何在长时间的营养饥饿中存活却知之甚少。鉴于自然环境往往缺乏营养，这是一个相当大的知识差距。因此，细菌被迫持续处于不生长或非常缓慢生长的状态。细菌如何在长期饥饿中存活？这是什么遗传和生理基础？当细胞死亡？最常见的死因是什么？拟议的研究将集中在一种名为Rhodoptera palustris的细菌上，该细菌已被确定为这些研究的良好模型。这种细菌在实验室环境中以饥饿的非生长状态存活数周。一个全面的诱变程序和高通量DNA测序技术将确定有助于饥饿生存的基因。这些基因将被验证，并在突变，实验室研究和基因表达研究的迭代过程中定义它们在饥饿生存中的作用。更广泛的影响。该项目将建立一个微生物功能基因组学用户组。华盛顿大学的18名研究人员将组成这个用户组的核心。该小组将开发用于数据分析的新实验和计算工具，这些工具将免费提供给科学界。这也将成为培养研究生和本科生将全球系统生物学方法应用于细菌的焦点。该用户组将寻求吸引该地区规模较小的学校的教师和学生，包括普吉特湾大学、西雅图太平洋大学、西雅图大学、万年青学院、贝尔维尤社区学院和西雅图社区学院。该项目还将支持一名女性博士后研究员，她将接受培训，整合来自细菌遗传学，生理学和计算分析的数据，以回答有关细胞如何在整个细胞水平上发挥作用的问题。最后，这项研究将有助于更好地了解非生长微生物的作用，这些微生物在自然界中占主导地位，并推动全球碳和氮循环。它还将促进更有效地利用非生长微生物作为生产生物燃料等增值产品的细胞工厂。