Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Life at extremes: Linking the phylogenetic and genomic diversity of ctenophores to ecophysiological adaptations in the deep sea

深海占地球上可居住空间的90%以上，但那里的生命对科学来说很大程度上是一个谜。鞭毛虫，也被称为梳状水母，是在所有海洋中发现的海洋捕食者，生活在深海和浅海。尽管它们很脆弱，很难研究，但它们具有重要的生物学意义，部分原因是它们似乎是进化过程中第一批从所有其他生物中分离出来的动物，甚至在海绵和水母之前。随着进化时间的推移，许多海洋生物已经将它们的栖息地从深海转移到深海，尽管这两种栖息地之间存在巨大的差异，包括光、温度和静水压力。随着时间的推移，这种栖息地的转移需要对这些动物谱系进行戏剧性的遗传和生理变化。梳状水母物种之间的亲缘关系表明，来自不同科的物种已经进化到在深海中生活和繁荣。该项目将在生化、生理和遗传水平上比较密切相关的深部和浅部物种，以了解这些转变是如何发生的。它将回答有关动物进化的基本机制的问题，并开发可公开使用的分析基因组数据集的工具。它将为两名博士生、一名博士后、两名硕士生和众多本科生培养尖端技术。涉及深海生物多样性和胶状动物的公众宣传将有助于教育和激发人们对海洋生物的欣赏。该项目的主要目标是利用尖端分子分析来了解进化和多样性，以调查深海栖息地作为新的生物适应的产生力量。将利用地表水中的蓝水潜水器和深海中的遥控潜水艇收集鞭毛虫标本，以在整个鞭毛虫的系统发育和功能多样性中产生补充的生理和基因组数据。通过在从热带浅水到温带深海地区的一系列栖息地采集样本，该团队将测量生理能力，并对转录本和基因组进行排序。该项目将开发新的算法，以确定与深度适应有关的基因，并检查深海生理耐受性和对高静水压力的适应所依据的遗传事件。为了证实基因序列如何影响酶特性的理论预测，将在实验室表达和表征蛋白质。参与该项目的学生、博士后和PI之间的合作将大大加强一支受过当代生物多样性调查所需的古典和尖端技能培训的跨学科劳动力队伍。

The deep sea is more than 90 percent of the inhabitable space on Earth, yet life there is largely a mystery to science. Ctenophores, also known as comb jellies, are marine predators found in all oceans, inhabiting both deep and shallow seas. Although fragile and difficult to study, they are biologically important, in part because they appear to have been the first group of animals to split off from all other organisms during evolution, even before sponges and jellyfish. Over evolutionary time, many marine organisms have transitioned their home ranges to and from the deep sea despite the tremendous differences between these two habitats, including light, temperature, and hydrostatic pressure. Such habitat shifts required dramatic genetic and physiological changes to these animal lineages over time. The relationships between comb jelly species indicate that species from a variety of different families have evolved to live and thrive in the deep sea. This project will compare closely related deep and shallow species at biochemical, physiological and genetic levels to understand how these transitions came about. It will answer questions about the fundamental mechanisms of animal evolution and develop publicly available tools for analyzing genomic data sets. It will result in the training of cutting-edge techniques for two PhD students, a postdoc, two masters students, and numerous undergraduates. Public outreach involving biodiversity in the deep sea and gelatinous animals will help educate and inspire appreciation of marine life.The main objective of this project is to understand evolution and diversification using cutting edge molecular analyses to investigate the deep-sea habitat as the generating force of novel biological adaptations. Ctenophore specimens will be collected using blue-water SCUBA in surface waters and remotely operated submarines in the deep sea to generate complementary physiological and genomic data across the full phylogenetic and functional diversity of ctenophores. With samples taken across a range of habitats from shallow tropical waters to temperate bathypelagic zone, the team will measure physiological capabilities and sequence transcriptomes and genomes. This project will develop novel algorithms to identify genes involved in depth adaptation and examine the genetic events that underlie physiological tolerances and adaptations to high hydrostatic pressures in the deep sea. To confirm the theory-based predictions of how gene sequence affects the properties of enzymes, proteins will be expressed and characterized in the lab. Collaborations between the students, postdocs and PIs involved in this project will substantially enhance an interdisciplinary workforce trained in both classical and cutting edge skills needed for contemporary biodiversity investigations.