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。它们作为渔业、风暴屏障和生态旅游目的地具有巨大的经济价值。珊瑚是由大量相互关联的动物宿主组成的，这些宿主被称为息肉，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。海藻从海藻那里获得光合作用的营养物质，而海藻从海藻那里获得营养物质。虽然环境对珊瑚的威胁已经引起了人们的极大关注，但对于支撑珊瑚-藻类共生的微尺度细胞、分子和遗传机制，人们仍然只有部分了解。对这种共生规律的洞察将为珊瑚健康和珊瑚应激的研究提供更坚实的基础，例如珊瑚漂白，在珊瑚漂白过程中，宿主息肉失去了它们的共生藻类。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不同团队，研究一种小型海葵，它是珊瑚的优秀替代品，珊瑚在实验室中不能很好地存活，生长缓慢，由于它们处于濒危状态，很难收集。相比之下，生长迅速、杂草丛生的海葵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开发和通过在线交流平台向科学界和公众迅速传播成果。将开发各种遗传技术，包括在双方中进行基因编辑，以便能够测试关于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，以了解这种共生的细胞、分子和遗传基础，研究人员将开发和优化方法，在实验室培育Aiptasia的完整生命周期。该奖项将有助于科学家的培训，并使学龄儿童和普通公众了解珊瑚礁和共生科学。珊瑚礁的生态、经济和美学重要性得到广泛认可，他们面临的环境压力威胁也是如此。然而，珊瑚及其栖息的内共生甲藻(共生藻属)对宿主营养至关重要的潜在分子和细胞生物学仍然知之甚少。缺乏知识的一个主要原因是缺乏突变分离和分析、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分析也在很大程度上产生了相关性，其因果机制的含义仍然不确定。本项目致力于开发一种快速发展的模型系统--海葵Aiptasia和微小共生共生藻(Clade B1)菌株SSB01的基因功能测试方法，该菌株可以与Aiptasia形成稳定的内生共生，并能在培养中生长良好。在SSB01和小息肉中的基因操作将包括吗啡和CRISPR/Cas9方法，以实现基因敲除、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定居，并将鉴定和测试海葵神经肽作为实现Aiptasia变态的常规手段。最后，将开发一套相互交织的交流平台和活动，以便向更广泛的科学界迅速传播在该项目中获得的信息。

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.