COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Environmental and internal influences on the activities of the Calvin- and reductive citric acid cycles in hydrothermal vent symbiosis Riftia pachyptila

地球上的所有生命都依赖于有机体将二氧化碳固定为有机碳，有机体用光能或高能化学物质为这一过程提供动力。有四种已知的催化碳固定的途径。 基于系统发育分布和功能属性，已经假定在植物、藻类和一些细菌中发现的卡尔文本森-巴斯沙姆循环由于其对氧气的弹性而在好氧陆地和海洋好氧生境中占主导地位，而其他“氧气敏感”的碳固定途径则被归入低氧或缺氧环境，如喷口和温泉。与这一假设相反，在热液喷口周围的低氧扩散流中发现了共生体，其中细菌伴侣使用卡尔文本森-巴斯沙姆循环。 管虫-细菌共生体，特别是Riftia pachyptila（“Riftia”），是太平洋热液喷口的主要关键物种。 这些共生系统以与生长最快的植物相当的质量比速率固定碳。 令人惊讶的是，最近的研究表明，细菌共生体使用两个碳固定途径，卡尔文本森-巴斯沙姆循环和还原性三羧酸循环。 单一生物（细菌）利用这两种途径固定碳是前所未有的，可能是科普热液喷口生物所面临的环境条件高度多变的一种策略。 对于这里提出的工作，Riftia将在模拟原位发现的环境变化的条件下在高压水族箱中孵育。 对细菌和管虫宿主的生化测定将用于确定环境条件，代谢活动和两种途径的差异使用之间的关系，以了解它们如何在动态环境中协同作用以维持碳固定。 这些数据将大大加深对环境对细菌和植物固碳作用的影响的理解，也将有助于确定为什么不同的生物有不同的固碳途径。我们同样致力于拟议的科学研究和我们拟议的教育和推广。 我们计划支持三个主要项目：（1）研究生培养（2）本科生指导，以及（3）使用真实的研究数据和经验设计高影响力的教育课程。这项研究将使本科生和研究生谁将密切参与设计和工程实验，分析数据，并正式提出和记录工作的支持和培训。 拟议中的研究包含重要的领域和实验室组成部分，这使学生和教师有机会参与这个项目在各个层次。

All life on Earth depends upon the fixation of carbon dioxide to organic carbon by organisms that power this process with light energy or high-energy chemicals. There are four known pathways that catalyze carbon fixation. Based on phylogenetic distributions and functional attributes, it has been posited that the Calvin Benson Bassham cycle, found in plants, algae, and some bacteria, dominates in aerobic terrestrial and marine aerobic habitats due to its resilience to oxygen, while other 'oxygen sensitive' carbon fixation pathways are relegated to hypoxic or anoxic environs like vents and hot springs. Contrary to this supposition, there are symbioses found in hypoxic diffuse flows around hydrothermal vents in which the bacterial partner uses the Calvin Benson Bassham cycle. Tubeworm-bacterial symbioses, in particular Riftia pachyptila ("Riftia"), are the dominant keystone species at hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean. These symbiotic systems fix carbon at mass specific rates comparable to the fastest growing plants. Surprisingly, recent studies suggest that the bacterial symbionts use two carbon fixation pathways, the Calvin Benson Bassham cycle and the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle. The use of these two pathways by a single organism (the bacterium) to fix carbon is unprecedented, and may be a strategy to cope with the high variability in environmental conditions encountered by hydrothermal vent organisms. For the work proposed here, Riftia will be incubated in high-pressure aquaria under conditions that mimic the environmental variations found in situ. Biochemical assays on the bacteria and tubeworm host will be used to ascertain the relationship between environmental conditions, metabolic activity and differential use of the two pathways, to understand how they act in concert to sustain carbon fixation in a dynamic environment. These data will considerably further the understanding of the influence of environment on carbon fixation by bacteria as well as plants, and will also be helpful for determining why different organisms have the different carbon fixing pathways.We are equally committed to the proposed scientific research and our proposed education and outreach. We plan to support three major programs: (1) graduate student development (2) undergraduate mentoring, and (3) the design of high-impact educational curricula using real research data and experiences. This study will enable the support and training of undergraduate and graduate students who will be intimately involved in designing and engineering the experiments, analyzing the data, and formally presenting and documenting the work. The proposed research contains significant field and laboratory components, which affords students and teachers the opportunities to participate in this project at a variety of levels.