INSPIRE_Deciphering the Genealogy of Neurons via Planetary Biodiversity Capture

该INSPIRE项目由生物科学理事会综合有机体系统司神经系统组的组织方案、环境生物学司的系统学和生物多样性科学组以及地球科学理事会海洋科学司的生物海洋学方案、国际科学与工程办公室和综合活动办公室。为什么我们的大脑中有如此巨大的神经元多样性是现代生物学中最不了解也是最具挑战性的问题之一。两个因素促成了这种多样性。一个是不同的神经元有不同的功能，另一个是不同的神经元有不同的进化历史。然而，既没有进化历史，也没有神经元类型的分类。该项目的目标是重建神经元的谱系，并在大多数动物群体中建立一个无偏见的神经元分类。这将提供一种预测神经元及其连接特性的方法。将开发一种新的方法来确定在不同神经元中表达的分子种类。为了获得至关重要的生物体，首席研究员将组织研究船的全球航行，以收集代表所有主要类型神经组织的海洋动物。将收集数千个不同物种的神经元群体，并使用新的计算和数学工具进行分析。这项工作将开创神经系统学的一个新领域。该团队将开发和测试一种新的方法，用于远程培训本科生和研究生，以便在世界任何地方进行实时分析。 该项目将涉及与来自许多国家大学的150多名调查人员进行研究合作，并将为国际学生和代表人数不足的少数民族学生提供机会，让他们参与偏远海洋实验室的生物多样性研究。该项目还将为多个学科提供无价的资源和参考数据库。研究战略基于开发纳米体积捕获技术的移动的版本，该技术旨在以单细胞分辨率对整个神经系统进行大规模转录组分析。重点将放在以前从未研究过的动物谱系上，包括phoronids，腕足动物，xenoturbellids和稀有脆弱的幼虫。 该团队将整合基因组学工具和统计几何学，以表征细胞类型进化中的转录差异，并重建神经源性基因调控回路。为了将基因组中固有的统计不确定性以及复杂系统中的自然选择结合起来，信息论的随机方法将用于评估数十类神经元结构的分子差异。将研究物种边界的基因组性质，以揭示物种形成速率的环境和神经感觉限制。因此，破译神经元谱系将与形成新行为的功能和生态约束相结合。

This INSPIRE project is jointly funded by the Organization Program in the Neural Systems Cluster in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, the Systematics and Biodiversity Science Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology, both in the Biological Sciences Directorate, and by the Biologial Oceanography Program in the Division of Ocean Sciences in the Geosciences Directorate, the Office of International Science and Engineering, and the Office of Integrative Activities.Why there is such an enormous diversity of neurons in our brains is the least understood and one of the most challenging problems in modern biology. Two factors contribute to this diversity. One is that different neurons have different functions, and the other, is that different neurons have different evolutionary histories. However, neither evolutionary history nor classification of neuronal types is established. The goal of this project is to reconstruct the genealogy of neurons and develop an unbiased classification of neurons in the majority of animal groups. This will provide a way to predict the properties of neurons and their connections. A novel approach to determine the kinds of molecules that are expressed in different neurons will be developed. To gain access to critically important organisms, the Principal Investigator will organize worldwide voyages on research vessels to collect marine animals that represent all major types of neuronal organization. Thousands of distinct neuronal populations across species will be collected and analyzed with novel computational and mathematical tools. The work will create a new field of NeuroSystematics. The team will develop and test a novel approach for distant training of undergraduate and graduate students to perform real-time analyses at any world location. The project will involve research collaborations with over 150 investigators from universities from many countries and will provide opportunities for international and underrepresented minority students to be involved in biodiversity research in remote oceanic laboratories. The project will also provide priceless resources and reference databases for several disciplines.The research strategy is based upon the development of a mobile version of a nano-volume capture technology designed for massive transcriptome analysis of entire nervous systems at single-cell resolution. The focus will be on animal lineages never investigated before, including phoronids, brachiopods, xenoturbellids, and rare and fragile larvae. The team will integrate phylogenomic tools and statistical geometry to characterize transcriptional divergence in cell type evolution and reconstruct neurogenic gene regulatory circuits. To incorporate the inherent statistical uncertainty in the genome, as well as natural selection within complex systems, stochastic approaches from information theory will be used to evaluate molecular diversities across dozens of classes of neuronal architectures. The genomic nature of species boundaries will be studied to reveal environmental and neurosensory limitations to the rates of speciation. Thus, deciphering the genealogy of neurons will be integrated with the functional and ecological constraints that underlie the formation of new behaviors.