COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: URoL : Epigenetics 2: Predicting phenotypic and eco-evolutionary consequences of environmental-energetic-epigenetic linkages

合作研究：URoL：表观遗传学 2：预测环境-能量-表观遗传联系的表型和生态进化后果

基本信息

批准号：
1921356
负责人：
Holly Moeller
金额：
$ 59.87万
依托单位：
University of California-Santa Barbara
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-09-01 至 2025-08-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1921356&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH URoL Epigenetics Predicting

项目摘要

Living organisms may acclimate to environmental changes through epigenetic modifications to DNA, which alter the way genetic instructions are interpreted without altering the DNA code itself. While these modifications to organismal phenotype or function can be reversible, some of them may be inherited by offspring, potentially producing multiple, heritable outcomes from a single genome and affecting ecological and evolutionary outcomes. This project uses symbiotic, metabolically complex reef building corals as a model system to test the connections between physiological, epigenetic, and metabolic states, and predict how population and community dynamics are influenced by epigenetically-modulated phenotypes. This work will advance biological knowledge by delineating fundamental links (Rules of Life) between ubiquitous organismal energetic processes, epigenetics, and eco-evolutionary outcomes. The Broader Impacts activities parallel the project's integrative approach, linking insights from Environment x Energetics x Epigenetics x Ecology for Education into an E5 platform. The E5 platform will provide i) early career STEM training, ii) local and global community education, and iii) educational resources for open science, quantitative approaches, and research reproducibility. Further, this E5 platform will train and inform the next generation of diverse scientists and public by combining local and global initiatives focusing on groups underrepresented in STEM. This project examines how nutrient metabolism in the mitochondria generates cofactors and energy that will instruct the epigenetic machinery in the cell nucleus to modulate genome function to appropriately respond to environmental conditions. Environmentally-responsive metabolic function and energetic-epigenetic linkages act as drivers of complex emergent phenotypes. To elucidate relationships that are the basis for Rules of Life with respect to epigenetics, this project will use integrative experimental and modeling approaches focused on reef building corals to: 1) link nutritionally-provisioned metabolites with epigenetic and organismal state through seasonal sampling across environmental gradients; 2) expand current Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) models for symbiotic organisms to further integrate critical facets of nutritional symbiosis and calcification; 3) experimentally modulate metabolic and therefore epigenetic states through repeated exposure to increased temperature and nutrients, to test intra- and trans-generational epigenetic inheritance; 4) use DEB theory to identify shifts in energetics associated with epigenetic modulation, and link these sub-organismal processes to higher levels of organization; and 5) integrate findings into a generalizable, predictive eco-evolutionary model that links nutritional interactions, metabolic states, and subsequent epigenetic effects to the timescales regulating organismal processes and eco-evolutionary outcomes. This effort will provide characterization of environmental epigenetic phenomena in ecosystem-engineering marine invertebrates. This characterization includes determining the mechanisms and the degree of epigenetic 'memory' both within and across generations. By including information on environmental legacies, propagated by epigenetics, this project will advance both organismal and population-based models and improve capacity to predict responses to acute and chronic environmental signals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

生物体可以通过对DNA的表观遗传学修饰来适应环境变化，从而改变了遗传指令的解释方式而不会改变DNA代码本身。尽管这些对有机体表型或功能的修饰可能是可逆的，但其中一些可能是通过后代遗传的，它可能从单个基因组中产生多种，可遗传的结果，并影响生态和进化结果。该项目使用共生，代谢复杂的珊瑚礁建筑珊瑚作为模型系统，以测试生理，表观遗传和代谢状态之间的联系，并预测种群和社区动态如何受到表观遗传调节的表型的影响。这项工作将通过描述无处不在的有机物过程，表观遗传学和生态进化结果之间的基本联系（生命规则）来提高生物学知识。更广泛的影响活动平行于该项目的综合方法，将环境X Energetics X Ecgenetics x Ecogy的见解与E5平台联系起来。 E5平台将提供i）早期职业STEM培训，ii）本地和全球社区教育以及III）开放科学，定量方法和研究可重复性的教育资源。此外，该E5平台将通过将重点关注STEM中代表性不足的群体的本地和全球倡议相结合，培训和告知下一代不同的科学家和公众。该项目研究了线粒体中的营养代谢如何产生辅助因子和能量，这将指示细胞核中的表观遗传机制调节基因组功能以适当响应环境条件。环境反应性的代谢功能和能量景观连接起着复杂的紧急表型的驱动因素。为了阐明是表观遗传学生命规则的关系的关系，该项目将使用集成性实验和建模方法，重点是建造珊瑚礁的珊瑚，以：1）通过跨环境梯度的季节性采样，将养分养分的代谢物与表观遗传和有机体状态联系起来； 2）扩大当前动态能量预算（DEB）模型，以进一步整合营养共生和钙化的关键方面； 3）通过反复暴露于温度和养分的重复暴露于实验中，从而调节代谢状态，以测试内部和跨代表观遗传的遗传； 4）使用DEB理论来识别与表观遗传调节相关的能量学的转变，并将这些亚生物的过程与更高的组织联系起来； 5）将发现与可将营养相互作用，代谢状态和随后的表观遗传效应联系到调节有机过程和生态进化结果的时间标准的可概括性预测生态进化模型。这项工作将提供生态系统工程海洋无脊椎动物中环境表观遗传现象的表征。该表征包括确定几代人内外的表观遗传“记忆”的程度和程度。通过包括表观遗传学传播的环境遗产的信息，该项目将推动有机体和基于人群的模型，并提高预测对急性和慢性环境信号的反应的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力和更广泛影响的评估来通过评估来获得支持的。