Using Tardigrades and Other Animals to Investigate Adaptations to Extreme Stresses

这个项目的主要科学目标是发现某些活着的有机体如何在某些极端条件下生存下来。迟滞是一群微小的、八条腿的动物，它们可以在干燥、暴露在极端水平的辐射或暴露在太空真空中存活下来。由于一些基本的生物分子会受到这种条件的破坏，为了在这些极端条件下生存和恢复，迟滞动物必须拥有特殊的保护机制，这些机制只被部分了解，并将在本项目中进行研究。查明这种机制可以为保护其他脆弱生物材料，包括保质期非常短的重要生物医学产品提供可能的长期途径。几名研究生和本科生以及一名博士后将参与这项研究。该项目还将利用研究人员在微生物和显微镜方面的能力，为高度贫困地区的小学制造低成本的平板显微镜。将举办研讨会，培训教师如何建造这些显微镜，并制定教案，将显微镜应用于课堂，并将评估这一计划的影响。迟缓动物是少数几种动物群体之一，包括某些线虫、节肢动物和轮虫，它们可以在干燥后几乎失去所有细胞内水分的情况下存活下来。此外，迟滞者还能忍受其他压力，即这些其他群体中的一些人无法生存。该项目的目标是识别迟滞动物制造的新保护剂，了解一些强大的保护剂如何在活着的有机体中发挥作用，并开始了解动物保护剂的进化起源。遗传和分子研究将被用来识别有助于耐受干燥、冷冻、氧化应激和电离辐射的分子，并将研究一些强保护剂的作用机制。这项研究的结果有可能识别出可能用于生物医学目的的保护剂分子。该项目还将在北卡罗来纳州和其他州的高度贫困地区的小学放置廉价的显微镜。在试点工作中，已经建造了500多台低成本显微镜，主要是为北卡罗来纳州的公立小学、学校、博物馆举办的教师讲习班和一年一度的教师会议制造的。该项目以试点工作中取得的经验教训为基础，通过举办更多的讲习班、培训其他科学家在该国其他地区举办类似的讲习班以及协作评估讲习班的主要成果来扩大项目。此外，该项目包括对一名博士后研究员、研究生和本科生暑期研究人员的培训，从而为STEM职业发展做出贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The main scientific goal of this project is to discover how certain living organisms can survive some remarkably extreme conditions. Tardigrades are a group of microscopic, eight-legged animals that can survive being dried out, exposed to extreme levels of radiation, or exposed to the vacuum of space. Because some essential biological molecules are damaged by such conditions, to survive and recover from these extreme conditions tardigrades must harbor exceptional protective mechanisms, which are only partially understood and will be investigated in this project. Identifying such mechanisms can suggest possible long-term routes to protecting other fragile biological materials including important biomedical products that have very short shelf lives. Several graduate and undergraduate students and a post-doctoral fellow will be involved in the research. The project will also leverage researchers' abilities with microscopic organisms and microscopes in a program to build low cost, tablet-based microscopes for elementary schools in high-poverty regions. Workshops will be held to train teachers how to build these microscopes and develop lesson plans to incorporate microscope use in their classrooms, and the impacts of this program will be assessed.Tardigrades are among the few animal groups, including certain nematodes, arthropods, and rotifers, that can survive desiccation with loss of nearly all intracellular water. Furthermore, tardigrades tolerate other stresses that some of these other groups do not survive. The goals of this project are to identify new protectants made by tardigrades, understand how some strong protectants work in living organisms, and begin to understand the evolutionary origins of animal protectants. Genetic and molecular studies will be used to identify molecules that contribute to tolerance to desiccation, freezing, oxidative stress, and ionizing radiation, and the mechanisms by which some strong protectants work will be studied. Results from this research have the potential to identify protectant molecules that may be useful for biomedical purposes. The project will also place inexpensive microscopes in elementary schools in high-poverty regions of North Carolina and in other states. In pilot efforts, more than 500 low-cost microscopes have been built, mostly for North Carolina public elementary schools, in teacher workshops held in schools, museums, and at an annual teachers’ conference. This project builds on lessons learned in the pilot efforts, expanding the project by running additional workshops, by training other scientists to run similar workshops in other parts of the country, and by collaboratively assessing key outcomes of the workshops. In addition, the project involves training for one post-doctoral fellow, graduate students, and undergraduate summer researchers, thereby contributing to STEM career development.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.