URoL: MTM 1: Chemistry of cnidarian symbiosis: microbiomes role in association, morphogenesis, and protection

许多刺胞动物，包括珊瑚，海葵和水母，含有光合藻类，为它们提供关键的营养。与人类活动有关的生境变化可能破坏这种共生关系，导致最近珊瑚漂白事件迅速增加。这些白化事件往往对珊瑚礁生态系统产生破坏性影响，而珊瑚礁生态系统是地球上生物多样性社区之一。虽然有越来越多的证据表明，细菌和真菌微生物组在健康动物的生理学中具有重要作用，但对刺胞动物的微生物组或其微生物组在介导刺胞动物-藻类共生中的作用知之甚少。该研究项目将系统地研究与刺胞动物相关的微生物，这些微生物产生的化合物，以及这些化合物对刺胞动物生理和共生的影响。这些实验的结果将为刺胞动物生物学提供关键的见解，这是全球保护工作的设计和实施所迫切需要的。此外，这项研究可能会产生一般的见解动物微生物的关系，因为刺胞动物是最古老的动物谱系之一，并提供了一个重要的进化观点，刺胞动物的多样性允许比较的方法，在这个系统中的强相互作用将揭示一般原则。此外，该项目有一个强有力的教育和公共宣传部分，包括一个教师讲习班，把新的实验室为基础的课程，以当地公立学区。刺胞动物与共生甲藻的共生关系在刺胞动物生理学中具有重要作用。最近的研究结果表明，刺胞动物宿主和共生甲藻都与复杂的细菌和真菌微生物群有关。然而，鲜为人知的是，这些社区的多样性，他们的次级代谢组，或它们如何影响刺胞动物的生理和刺胞动物甲藻共生。拟议的研究将通过使用宏基因组学来描述与刺胞动物相关的微生物群落，比较代谢组学分析来识别宿主动物和微生物产生的化合物，以及体内测定来确定微生物和代谢物对刺胞动物生理学的影响，从而解决这一知识差距。该项目的第一个目标是使用海葵Exaiptasia确定微生物组对珊瑚藻共生的影响。这项研究将描述宿主中的细菌和真菌多样性，微生物组操作对珊瑚漂白的影响，共生和非共生宿主的代谢组，以及培养微生物的代谢产物的影响。该项目的第二个目标是使用倒置的水母Cassiopea确定微生物组对珊瑚发育和共生的影响。这种水母的生命周期转变取决于共生腰鞭毛虫的存在，该项目将确定Cassiopea中的细菌和真菌群落，不同生命周期的代谢组，以及微生物组对动物发育的影响。该项目由NSF了解生命规则（URoL）大创意倡议和生命过程化学（CLP）联合支持该奖项反映了NSF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。

Many cnidarians, including corals, anemones, and jellyfish, contain photosynthetic algae that supply them with critical nutrients. Habitat changes associated with human activity can destabilize this symbiotic relationship, leading to a rapid rise in recent coral bleaching events. These bleaching events often have devastating effects on reef ecosystems, which are amongst the biodiverse communities on the planet. Although there is increasing evidence that the bacterial and fungal microbiome has an important role in the physiology of healthy animals, relatively little is known about the microbiome of cnidarians or the role of their microbiome in mediating cnidarian-algae symbiosis. This research project will systematically examine the microorganisms associated with cnidarians, the compounds these microbes produce, and the effects these compounds have on cnidarian physiology and symbiosis. The results from these experiments will provide key insights into cnidarian biology, which is urgently needed for the design and implementation of global preservation efforts. Furthermore, this research is likely to yield general insights into animal-microorganism relationships, since cnidarians are one of the oldest animal lineages and provide an important evolutionary perspective, the diversity of cnidarians allows comparative approaches, and the strong interactions in this system will expose general principles. In addition, this project has a strong education and public outreach component, including a teacher’s workshop to bring new lab-based curriculum to local public-school districts. The symbiotic relationship between cnidarians and phototrophic dinoflagellates (family Symbiodiniaceae) has a critical role in cnidarian physiology. Recent findings suggest that both the cnidarian host and the symbiotic dinoflagellates are associated with complex bacterial and fungal microbiomes. However, little is known about the diversity of these communities, their secondary metabolome, or how they affect cnidarian physiology and cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis. The proposed research will address this knowledge gap by using metagenomics to describe the cnidarian-associated microbial communities, comparative metabolomics analysis to identify compounds produced by both the host animal and microbes, and in vivo assays to determine the effects of microbes and metabolites on cnidarian physiology. The first aim of this project will identify the effects of the microbiome on coral-algae symbiosis using the anemone Exaiptasia. This research will describe the bacterial and fungal diversity in the host, the effects of microbiome manipulation on coral bleaching, the metabolome of symbiotic and aposymbiotic hosts, and the effects of metabolites from cultured microbes. The second aim of this project will determine the effects of the microbiome on coral development and symbiosis using the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea. Life cycle transitions in this jellyfish are dependent on the presence of symbiotic dinoflagellates, and this project will identify the bacterial and fungal community in Cassiopea, the metabolome of different life cycles, and the effects of the microbiome on animal development.This project is jointly supported by the NSF Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL) Big Idea initiative and the Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP) Program in the Division of Chemistry at NSF.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.