NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2012

2012 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1202865
• 负责人: Kevin Penn
• 金额: $ 12.3万
• 依托单位: Penn Kevin M
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1202865&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

Quantitative assessment of the population and functional diversity in phytoplankton and coral 'holobiont' metagenomesCoral reef health is declining while harmful algal blooms appear to be increasing in frequency and distribution. Both are likely reflective of global climate change. However, the dynamics of the microbial communities associated with these aquatic habitats is not well known. The project goals are to analyze metatranscriptomes of phytoplankton and coral associated microbes in order to: 1) characterize the genetic diversity of discrete populations and 2) evaluate functional diversity by focusing on nutrient acquisition and secondary metabolite genes.The training goals are to further develop bioinformatics tools needed to identify significantly different and similar gene expression occurring among coral reefs and freshwater phytoplankton blooms. This project has the potential to impact two different fields of biology. Typically, secondary metabolite type genes (which make many of the antibiotics in use today) are overlooked in studies of evolution and ecology because researchers are not interested in drug discovery while natural product researchers do not have the expertise to properly study the evolution and ecology of these gene types. This project will help bridge the gap and place studies of natural products in the context of evolution and ecology rather than simply for the discovery of novel drugs for pharmaceutical companies. However, incorporating studies of natural products into ecologically driven research will provide important data to researchers looking to discover new pharmaceuticals. The project will also train young scientists through MIT's undergraduate research program and establish the first Coral Club in Cambridge where scientists can present research in an informal setting and volunteer at museums in the Boston area.

浮游植物和珊瑚“全生生物”宏基因组种群和功能多样性的定量评估珊瑚礁的健康状况正在下降，而有害藻华的频率和分布似乎在增加。两者都可能反映了全球气候变化。然而，与这些水生栖息地相关的微生物群落的动态并不为人所知。该项目的目标是分析浮游植物和与珊瑚有关的微生物的元转录组，以便：1）描述离散种群的遗传多样性，2）通过侧重于营养物质获取和次级代谢物基因来评估功能多样性，培训目标是进一步开发生物信息学工具，以确定珊瑚礁和淡水浮游植物水华之间发生的显著不同和相似的基因表达。该项目有可能影响生物学的两个不同领域。通常，次级代谢物类型的基因（今天使用的许多抗生素）在进化和生态学研究中被忽视，因为研究人员对药物发现不感兴趣，而天然产物研究人员没有适当研究这些基因类型的进化和生态学的专业知识。该项目将有助于弥合差距，并将天然产品的研究置于进化和生态学的背景下，而不仅仅是为制药公司发现新药。然而，将天然产物的研究纳入生态驱动的研究将为寻求发现新药物的研究人员提供重要数据。该项目还将通过麻省理工学院的本科研究项目培训年轻科学家，并在剑桥建立第一个珊瑚俱乐部，科学家可以在非正式环境中展示研究成果，并在波士顿地区的博物馆担任志愿者。