Collaborative Research: Dimensions: Coevolution of scleractinian corals and their associated microorganisms

珊瑚礁是地球上最具生物多样性的海洋生态系统之一，为沿海社区提供了可观的经济和生态效益。珊瑚既包括北极熊的动物宿主，也包括独特且未被开发的微生物组成的复杂群落。今天，这些自然奇观正在全球范围内衰落，受到包括过度捕捞、污染和气候变化在内的多种压力因素的交叉影响。这些应激源可以改变珊瑚微生物群落，从而可能导致珊瑚对疾病或藻类过度生长的易感性。因此，了解珊瑚与其微生物群之间的关系可能有助于了解珊瑚疾病和保护珊瑚礁生态系统。许多不同和古老的珊瑚种群中珊瑚物种的微生物多样性仍未得到探索，但了解这些群落将有助于将从经过充分研究的珊瑚中获得的知识推广到世界各地的各种珊瑚礁。该项目旨在描述全球几个不同生态系统中每一个不同生态系统中所有主要造礁珊瑚组的微生物多样性，确定关键珊瑚细菌的基因组序列和代谢能力，并测试珊瑚微生物群落的组成是否有助于解释不同珊瑚物种对压力或疾病的整体脆弱性或抵抗力。该项目包括最大限度地扩大公众访问、科学社区建设和为职业生涯早期的科学家提供培训机会的计划。该项目将资助两名拉美裔首席研究人员、两名博士生和两名博士后研究人员进行实验室和实地研究--以及管理“大数据”的关键计算技术。项目资金将用于支持合作、多语言科学播客计划的扩展；建立反复出现的科学咖啡馆；成功地将K-5珊瑚礁教育模块纳入州立大学学区的课程；以及教育视频片段。珊瑚物种对漂白和疾病的易感性不同，但这些差异只能用珊瑚系统发育来部分解释。因此，这个项目将测试结合微生物区系(或其贡献的基因)在多大程度上更好地预测这些和其他特征。最近的技术进步扩大了人们对复杂微生物群如何塑造其多细胞宿主(例如人类微生物群)的生活史、生理学和进化的理解。使用新开发的DNA测序技术将使人们能够比以前更全面地探索珊瑚中的微生物多样性，而先进的计算方法将有助于最大限度地发挥已测序细菌基因组的价值。结合珊瑚系统发育和微生物功能的改进预测模型将有助于为保护战略提供信息，并产生珊瑚易受疾病或漂白影响的预测生物标记物。将珊瑚的多样性与其微生物的多样性联系起来，也将提供重要的见解，了解与微生物的密切共生关系是如何在不同的动物中产生和维持的。

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse marine ecosystems on the planet, and provide substantial economic and ecological benefits to coastal communities. Corals are composed of both the Cnidarian animal host and complex communities of unique and underexplored microbial organisms. Today these natural wonders are in global decline, threatened by the intersecting effects of multiple stressors including overfishing, pollution, and climate change. These stressors can alter coral microbial communities in ways that may contribute to the susceptibility of corals to disease or overgrowth by algae. Therefore, understanding the relationships between corals and their microbiota may be useful for efforts to understand coral disease and preserve reef ecosystems. The microbial diversity of coral species in many diverse and ancient groups of corals remains unexplored, but understanding these communities will help to extend the knowledge gained in well-studied corals to diverse reefs worldwide. This project aims to describe microbial diversity across all major groups of reef-building corals in each of several distinct ecosystems across the globe, to determine the genome sequences and metabolic capabilities of key coral bacteria, and to test whether the composition of coral microbial communities helps to explain the overall vulnerability or resistance of different coral species to stress or disease. The project includes plans for maximizing public access, scientific community building, and training opportunities for early-career scientists. The project will fund two hispanic principal investigators, two PhD students, and two postdoctoral researchers in laboratory and field research - and also in key computational techniques for managing "Big Data". Project funds will support an extension of a program of collaborative, multilingual scientific podcasts; establishment of recurring science cafes; K-5 coral reef educational modules tested successfully for incorporation into the curriculum in the State College School District; and educational video segments. Coral species differ in their susceptibility to bleaching and disease, but these differences are only partially explained by coral phylogeny. Therefore this project will test the extent to which incorporating the microbiota (or their contributed genes) better predicts these and other traits. Recent technological advances have broadened understanding of how complex microbiomes shape the life history, physiology, and evolution of their multicellular hosts (e.g., the human microbiome). The use of newly developed DNA sequencing techniques will allow a more complete exploration of microbial diversity in corals than has previously been feasible, while advanced computational methods will help to maximize the value of sequenced bacterial genomes. Improved predictive models that incorporate both coral phylogeny and microbial function will help inform conservation strategies and yield predictive biomarkers for coral vulnerability to disease or bleaching. Relating the diversity of corals to the diversity of their microbes will also provide important insights into how intimate symbiotic associations with microorganisms arose and are maintained in diverse animals.