URoL: Epigenetics 1: Influence of environmental change on the epigenome and phenotypic plasticity in purple sea urchins

该项目将探索生命早期暴露于可变环境如何塑造晚年的特征。在海洋生物中，已知水温或水中微生物含量的变化会扰乱幼虫到成虫生命周期中免疫系统的发育和功能。虽然有证据表明，环境诱导的化学物质添加到生物体的DNA中可能发挥了重要作用，但这种情况是如何发生的尚不清楚。这种DNA变化被称为“表观遗传”，可以改变幼虫发育成成虫过程中特定基因开启或关闭的时间和地点。这项研究将重点研究紫海胆（一种具有重要生态意义的海洋生物）免疫系统发育相关基因的表观遗传变化。研究结果有望更好地了解海洋生物如何在不断变化的海洋环境中适应生存。除了其科学影响外，该项目还将通过为本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员提供培训，以及为高中生提供通过奥本大学暑期科学研究所参与实践研究的机会，从而产生教育效益。快速变化的生态系统对生物学家来说是一个挑战，他们需要揭示生物体对不断变化的环境做出反应的机制。适应性表型变化可能改变种群动态，进而改变群落组成和生态系统功能。表观基因组正在成为生物体基因组和表型之间的潜在中介，尽管这种联系仍然知之甚少。拟议的研究采用紫海胆（strongylocentrrotus purpuratus）来确定表观基因组与幼虫表型之间的因果关系，重点是免疫功能。这项高度整合的工作将通过全基因组甲基化分析来表征发育过程中的动态表观基因组景观，使用实验方法识别对环境条件有反应的表观遗传信号，并通过使用体内延时显微镜监测全系统细胞对特定病原体的反应，将这些变化与免疫表型联系起来。S. purpuratus特别适合这些研究，因为它在太平洋海带森林中占据着重要的生态位，正经历着更高、更长的季节性温度，几十年来一直被用作理解发育、细胞生物学和免疫学的模型。该系统提供了一个独特的机会，将生态学，发育学，免疫学，实验生物学和计算基因组学的观点整合在一起，以拼凑表观遗传学如何调节表型以响应环境变化。该项目由理解生命规则：表观遗传学项目资助，该项目由生物科学理事会新兴前沿部门管理，是NSF十大理念的一部分。联合资助由生物科学理事会综合有机体系统部综合生态生理学项目提供。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will explore how early-life exposure to variable environments shapes traits in later life. In marine organisms, variation in temperature or microbial content of the water is known to perturb development and function of the immune system during the larvae-to-adult life cycle. How this occurs is not well understood, although evidence suggests that environmentally-induced chemical additions to the organism’s DNA may play an important role. Such DNA changes, referred to as ‘epigenetic’, can alter when and where specific genes are turned on or off as larvae develop to become adults. This research will focus on studying epigenetic changes in genes involved in development of the immune system of the purple sea urchin, an ecologically-important ocean dweller. The results are expected to provide better understanding of how marine organisms adapt for survival in changing ocean environments. In addition to its scientific impact, the project will have educational benefits by providing training for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers, as well as opportunities for high school students to engage in hands-on research through Auburn University’s Summer Science Institute. Rapidly changing ecosystems are challenging biologists to uncover the mechanisms used by organisms to respond to shifting environments. Adaptive phenotypic changes may alter population dynamics, and, in turn, community composition and ecosystem function. The epigenome is emerging as a potential mediator between organismal genomes and phenotypes, although this connection remains minimally understood. The proposed research employs the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) to identify causal linkages between the epigenome and larval phenotypes with an emphasis on immune function. This highly integrative work will characterize the dynamic epigenomic landscape during development through whole genome methylation profiling, identify epigenetic signals that are responsive to environmental conditions using an experimental approach, and link these changes to immunological phenotypes by monitoring the system-wide cellular response to a specific pathogen using in vivo time-lapse microscopy. S. purpuratus is particularly well-suited for these studies, as it occupies an important ecological niche in Pacific kelp forests, is experiencing higher, more prolonged seasonal temperatures, and has been used for decades as a model to understand development, cell biology and immunology. This system offers a unique opportunity to integrate perspectives from ecology, development, immunology, experimental biology, and computational genomics to piece together how epigenetics modulates phenotypes in response to environmental change.This project is funded by the Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics Program, administered as part of NSF's Ten Big Ideas through the Division of Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate for Biological Sciences. Co-funding is provided by the Integrative Ecological Physiology Program, Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, Directorate for Biological Sciences.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.