CSBR: Living Stocks - Enhancement of the Caenorhabditis Natural Diversity Resource

对保守生物过程的研究需要与人类有共同属性的模型生物。大多数模型生物很容易在实验室中生长，并能够进行实验操作。在过去的40年里，线虫秀丽线虫在遗传学、发育生物学和神经生物学方面取得了许多基础进展。然而，所有这些发现都来自对该物种中单一菌株的研究。这一局限类似于这样一种观点，即我们可以通过研究我们物种中的一个人来理解所有人类生物学。该项目旨在扩大线虫自然多样性资源(CEDR)，该资源由来自世界各地的近1000种不同的遗传菌株组成。这种遗传多样性有助于发现生理和行为特征的进化，包括对化学和生物胁迫的反应。由于人类与这种线虫物种共享许多相同的基因和过程，使用这种生物的研究可以教会我们许多关于人类种群的差异。CeNDR有三个主要目标：(1)收集、组织和传播野生线虫菌株；(2)组织和传播野生菌株的全基因组序列和变异数据；以及(3)提供一个遗传学门户网站，以便于绘制和解释结果。该项目将针对这些目标中每一项的方法和技术进行重大改进。这些改进将使未来能够发现cendr，并使计划中的扩展包括菌株、全基因组数据和两个相关线虫物种的映射：布氏线虫和热带线虫。这种对线虫自然多样性资源(CaeNDR)的扩展将在线虫和可能的其他生物中建立无与伦比的比较进化方法的新能力。大多数研究小组没有实验、计算和统计训练的组合，无法轻松地进行自然变异研究。该项目将使这些工具可供不同模式生物体社区的研究实验室使用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Studies of conserved biological processes require model organisms which share attributes with humans. Most model organisms are easily grown in the laboratory and enable experimental manipulations. Over the last forty years, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been instrumental in numerous fundamental advances in genetics, developmental biology, and neurobiology. However, all of these discoveries come from studies of a single strain in the species. This limitation is similar to the argument that we can understand all of human biology by the study of a single person in our species. This project seeks to expand the C. elegans Natural Diversity Resource (CeNDR), which comprises nearly 1000 genetically distinct strains from around the world. This genetic diversity facilitates discoveries about the evolution of physiological and behavioral traits, including responses to chemical and biotic stresses. Because humans share many of the same genes and processes as this nematode species, studies using this organism can teach us a great deal about how the human population differs.CeNDR has three major goals: (1) Collect, organize, and disseminate wild C. elegans strains; (2) Organize and disseminate whole-genome sequence and variant data for wild strains; and (3) Provide a genetics portal to facilitate mappings and interpretations of results. This project will address critical improvements to the methodology and technology of each of those goals. These improvements will enable future discoveries with CeNDR and will enable the planned expansion to include strains, whole-genome data, and mappings for two related nematode species: C. briggsae and C. tropicalis. This expansion to the Caenorhabditis Natural Diversity Resource (CaeNDR) will build unparalleled new capacity for comparative evolution approaches in nematodes and likely other organisms. Most research groups do not have the combination of experimental, computational, and statistical training to easily perform studies of natural variation. This project will make these tools available and usable by research laboratories across diverse model organism communities.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.