CAREER: Coral Health Genomics: Transcriptome Analysis of two Caribbean Species and their Algal Symbionts

职业：珊瑚健康基因组学：两种加勒比物种及其藻类共生体的转录组分析

• 批准号: 1402065
• 负责人: Monica Medina
• 金额: $ 5.06万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 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: 2013-07-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1402065&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Coral; Health; Genomics; Transcriptome

Coral reefs are shallow benthic communities that harbor the highest biodiversity in tropical seas. These ecosystems are endangered due to global climate change and anthropogenic pressure from coastal areas. Coral health has been decaying at unprecedented rates in the past decades and is therefore in need of immediate attention. A healthy reef requires a stable coral-algal symbiosis. Thus, understanding the processes required for this mutualism is fundamental for coral reef preservation. Examining how corals respond to bacterial pathogens can also shed light onto how host-pathogen interactions may be the same or differ from processes that affect symbiotic interactions. The use of high throughput gene expression profiling (transcriptomics) is a relatively new genomics approach that promises to enhance the study of these interactions. This project will examine the transcriptome as it varies from natural (i.e., healthy) to disturbed states (i.e., bleached or diseased) in two coral-algal symbioses from the Caribbean: the corals Acropora palmata and Montastraea faveolata and their dominant dinoflagellate symbionts. The outcome of this research will contribute to the study of symbiosis as well as to applied fields such as conservation and management, including the development of coral health diagnostics. This project will train underrepresented minorities at the University of California, Merced. This new campus offers higher education and research opportunities to the disadvantaged Central Valley communities. This educational effort will be enhanced by a partnership with the DOE Joint Genome Institute to develop a course in Genome Biology. Students will also have the opportunity to be involved in environmental podcasting through the UC Merced website in three languages representative of the Central Valley populations (English, Spanish and Hmong). The project will also continue with successful outreach activities in collaboration the California Academy of Sciences through teacher training workshops.

珊瑚礁是热带海洋中生物多样性最高的浅水底栖群落。由于全球气候变化和沿海地区的人为压力，这些生态系统濒临灭绝。在过去的几十年里，珊瑚健康一直在以前所未有的速度退化，因此需要立即予以关注。一个健康的珊瑚礁需要稳定的珊瑚和藻类共生。因此，了解这种互惠共生所需的过程是珊瑚礁保护的基础。研究珊瑚对细菌病原体的反应也可以揭示宿主-病原体的相互作用如何与影响共生相互作用的过程相同或不同。高通量基因表达谱(转录组学)的使用是一种相对较新的基因组学方法，有望加强对这些相互作用的研究。该项目将研究加勒比海两种珊瑚-藻类共生体的转录组，因为转录组从自然状态(即健康的)到受干扰的状态(即漂白或患病)：珊瑚Acropora palmata和Montastraea Faveolata及其主要的甲藻共生体。这项研究的结果将有助于共生研究以及保护和管理等应用领域，包括开发珊瑚健康诊断学。该项目将在加州大学默塞德分校培训未被充分代表的少数民族。这个新校区为处于不利地位的中央山谷社区提供了高等教育和研究机会。这一教育努力将通过与能源部联合基因组研究所合作开发一门基因组生物学课程而得到加强。学生们还将有机会通过加州大学默塞德分校的网站，用代表中央山谷人口的三种语言(英语、西班牙语和苗语)参与环境播客。该项目还将继续与加州科学院合作，通过教师培训讲习班，成功地开展外联活动。