A quantitative analysis of phenotype in a multicellular prokaryote

多细胞原核生物表型的定量分析

• 批准号: 1244295
• 负责人: Roy Welch
• 金额: $ 86.41万
• 依托单位: Syracuse University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-05-15 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1244295&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: quantitative; analysis; phenotype; multicellular; prokaryote

An award is made to Syracuse University to undertake a critical step in understanding how a genome encodes an organism's three-dimensional structure. Revealing how each gene in a genome impacts the structure and function of an organism, i.e., "the genotype to phenotype problem" is challenging. Even the simplest organisms self-assemble through fragile, complex, and often poorly understood processes involving many different genes. In this context, the impact of a mutation to any single gene is often too subtle, or too entwined with the function of other genes, to be determined by direct observation. This project will achieve a critical step in overcoming this challenge by constructing a large and well-characterized mutant strain collection based on the genome of Myxococcus xanthus, an organism used to study three dimensional multi-cellular structures. The research will also develop experimental protocols to assign quantitative phenotype profiles that elucidate subtle functional changes linked to each gene, resulting in more accurate and thorough quantification of phenotype in the context of the entire genome, and a genome-scale data set related to function. In addition to providing a platform for training graduate students, all the strains and data will be made available for education purposes at the undergraduate level. These data will also become integral tools for students in an ongoing upper- division bioinformatics course at Syracuse University, and distributed to faculty from primarily undergraduate institutions to develop similar curricula for their students. In addition, the PI is engaging with local high school teachers to bring these data into their classrooms as an introduction to the genotype-to-phenotype problem and opportunities in life science in the post-genomic era. Information on this project can be found at: www.welchlab.org

锡拉丘兹大学在理解基因组如何编码生物体的三维结构方面迈出了关键的一步。揭示基因组中的每个基因如何影响生物体的结构和功能，即，“基因型到表型问题”是一个挑战。即使是最简单的有机体，也是通过脆弱、复杂、往往知之甚少的过程进行自我组装的，这些过程涉及许多不同的基因。在这种情况下，突变对任何单个基因的影响往往过于微妙，或者与其他基因的功能过于相关，无法通过直接观察来确定。该项目将通过构建基于粘球菌（一种用于研究三维多细胞结构的生物体）基因组的大型且特征良好的突变菌株集合，在克服这一挑战方面迈出关键一步。该研究还将开发实验方案，以分配定量表型谱，阐明与每个基因相关的微妙功能变化，从而在整个基因组的背景下更准确和彻底地量化表型，以及与功能相关的基因组规模数据集。除了为培训研究生提供平台外，所有菌株和数据都将用于本科教育目的。这些数据也将成为锡拉丘兹大学正在进行的高年级生物信息学课程的学生的不可或缺的工具，并分发给主要是本科院校的教师，为他们的学生开发类似的课程。此外，PI正在与当地高中教师合作，将这些数据带入课堂，作为后基因组时代生命科学中基因型到表型问题和机遇的介绍。有关该项目的信息，请访问：www.welchlab.org