IOS EDGE: Functional-genomics tools for Cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis

珊瑚礁是极其重要的、多样化的生态系统，在世界范围内受到环境变化和压力的威胁。作为渔业、风暴屏障和生态旅游目的地，它们具有巨大的经济价值。珊瑚是由大量相互连接的动物宿主组成的，这些动物宿主被称为珊瑚虫，它们的细胞内容纳着微小的藻类。这种伙伴关系或共生关系是整个珊瑚礁生态系统的基础。珊瑚虫从藻类那里接受光合作用的营养，藻类从珊瑚虫那里接受营养。虽然对珊瑚的环境威胁已经引起了很大的关注，但对支撑珊瑚-藻类共生的微尺度细胞、分子和遗传机制的了解仍然很有限。深入了解这种共生关系的调控将为研究珊瑚健康和珊瑚压力（如宿主珊瑚虫失去共生藻类的珊瑚白化）提供更坚实的基础。这个项目将汇集一个由珊瑚生物学家、细胞生物学家和遗传学家组成的多元化团队来研究一种小型海葵，这种海葵可以作为珊瑚的极好代表，因为珊瑚在实验室里不能很好地生存，生长缓慢，而且由于濒临灭绝而难以收集。相比之下，生长迅速的杂草海葵Aiptasia将使研究人员在珊瑚共生研究方面取得快速进展。该奖项的重点是技术发展和通过在线交流平台向科学界和公众迅速传播结果。将开发各种遗传技术，包括双方的基因编辑，以便能够测试有关特定基因参与珊瑚健康和压力的假设。为了提高研究工作的有效性和效率，了解这种共生关系的细胞，分子和遗传基础，研究人员将开发和优化方法，以在实验室中培养Aiptasia的完整生命周期。该奖项将有助于科学家的培训，并使学龄儿童和公众了解珊瑚礁和共生科学。珊瑚礁在生态、经济和美学上的重要性，以及它们所面临的环境压力的威胁，都得到了广泛的认识。尽管如此，对宿主营养至关重要的珊瑚及其居住的内共生鞭毛藻（共生属）的潜在分子和细胞生物学仍然知之甚少。知识匮乏的一个主要原因是缺乏突变体分离和分析、基因敲除、基因敲除和基因标记的方法。如果没有这些，即使是强大的基因组和转录组学分析在很大程度上也会产生相关性，其因果机制的含义仍然不确定。本项目重点研究快速发展的模型系统——海葵Aiptasia和共生菌（Clade B1）菌株SSB01的基因功能测试方法，该模型系统能与Aiptasia形成稳定的内共生关系，并能在培养中良好生长。SSB01和小息肉的基因操作将包括morpholino和CRISPR/Cas9方法，以实现基因敲低、敲除和基因标记。研究人员将从天然底物和生物膜中鉴定和测试化合物，以实现幼虫的沉降，并将鉴定和测试海葵神经肽，作为在实验室中常规实现Aiptasia变态的手段。最后，将发展一套相互交织的通讯平台和活动，以便向更广泛的科学界迅速传播项目中获得的信息。

Coral reefs are profoundly important, diverse ecosystems that are threatened worldwide by environmental variation and stress. They have huge economic value as fisheries, storm barriers and destinations for ecotourism. Corals are made up of large numbers of interconnected animal hosts, called polyps that house microscopic algae inside their cells. This partnership, or symbiosis, is the foundation of the entire coral reef ecosystem. The polyps receive photosynthetic nutrients from the algae, and the algae receive nutrients from the polyps. While a great deal of attention has been focused on the environmental threats to corals, there remains only a partial understanding of the microscale cellular, molecular, and genetic mechanisms that underpin the coral-algal symbiosis. Insight into regulation of this symbiosis will provide a stronger foundation for studies of coral health and coral stress, such as coral bleaching in which the host polyps lose their symbiotic algae. This project will bring together a diverse team of coral biologists, cell biologists and geneticists to study a small sea anemone that serves as an excellent proxy for corals, which do not survive well in the lab, are slow growing, and difficult to collect because of their endangered status. In contrast, the fast-growing, weedy sea anemone Aiptasia will enable the researchers to make rapid progress on the study of coral symbiosis. This award is focused on technique development and swift dissemination of results through online communication platforms to both the scientific community and the public. A variety of genetic techniques will be developed, including gene editing in both partners to be able to test hypotheses about the involvement of specific genes in coral health and stress. To increase the effectiveness and efficiency of research efforts to understand the cellular, molecular and genetic foundations of this symbiosis, the researchers will develop and optimize approaches to rear the complete life cycle of Aiptasia in the laboratory. This award will contribute to the training of scientists and expose school-aged children and the general public to coral reef and symbiosis science.The ecological, economic, and aesthetic importance of coral reefs is widely recognized, as are the threats they face from environmental stress. Nonetheless, the underlying molecular and cell biology of corals and their resident endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (genus Symbiodinium) that are critical for host nutrition remain poorly understood. A major reason for this paucity of knowledge is the lack of methods for mutant isolation and analysis, gene knockdown, gene knockout, and gene tagging. Without these, even powerful genomic and transcriptomic analysis largely yield correlations whose implications for causal mechanisms remain uncertain. This project focuses on development of approaches to test gene function in a rapidly developing model system, the sea anemone Aiptasia and the Symbiodinium minutum (Clade B1) strain SSB01, which can form a stable endosymbiosis with Aiptasia, and can grow well in culture. Genetic manipulation in SSB01 and in small polyps will include morpholino and CRISPR/Cas9 approaches to achieve gene knockdown, knockout and gene tagging. The researchers will identify and test compounds from natural substrates and biofilms to achieve larval settlement, and will identify and test anemone neuropeptides as a means to achieve metamorphosis of Aiptasia routinely in the laboratory. Finally, a set of interwoven communications platforms and activities will be developed to rapidly disseminate information gained in the project to the broader scientific community.