CAREER: Temporal dynamics of microbial and viral function and adaptation in hydrothermal vents

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。本项目由生物海洋学和海洋教育计划（海洋科学部）以及系统学和生物多样性科学集群（环境生物部）资助。生活在深海热液喷口附近的微生物和病毒充当了碳、硫、铁和其他从海底冒出来并流入全球海洋的基本元素的过滤器。然而，由于与深海采样相关的挑战，迄今为止大多数研究只捕获了这些群落的快照，在微生物和病毒如何适应、进化和应对这种环境变化方面留下了重大的知识空白。研究人员利用海洋观测计划的基础设施，对基因变化进行了为期五年的高分辨率监测，以调查热液喷口微生物群落的功能、生态和进化，热液喷口被认为是地球上最古老的栖息地之一。这个项目的数据有望成为这些研究人员和其他研究人员解决未来问题的宝贵科学资源。例如，它将使我们了解地球上生命的早期进化，以及微生物及其病毒如何应对深海采矿和气候变化等人为干扰。该项目在研究过程的各个阶段吸引和培养本科生作为科学伙伴，促进他们进入科学网络。此外，一门新课程指导大学生在文化、政治和社会背景下审视科学。该项目还包括一个与当地一所小学合作的项目，旨在提高年轻学生的科学素养。该项目的主要目标是了解随着时间的推移，热液喷口微生物和病毒种群的生态和进化力量。该项目使用位于东北太平洋轴向海山的海洋观测倡议区域电缆阵列（OOI RCA）的仪器，定期收集热液和DNA样本，在五年内大约每10-20天收集一次，以产生微生物和病毒丰度和宏基因组的时间序列。该项目的具体科学目标是：1)通过16S rRNA扩增子和宏基因组数据集的时间序列分析，结合化学、pH和温度数据，确定微生物群落组成和功能的环境驱动因素；2)利用元基因组组装基因组的单核苷酸变异和基因含量随时间的变化来研究微生物种群的进化动态；3)通过跟踪病毒和微生物宏基因组内的微多样性，评估病毒种群动态模型。比较样品和从其他喷口收集的数据被用来确定结果的泛化。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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project is funded by the Biological Oceanography and the Ocean Education Programs (Division of Ocean Sciences) and the Systematics and Biodiversity Science Cluster (Division of Environmental Biology). Microbes and viruses living near deep-sea hydrothermal vents act as filters for carbon, sulfur, iron, and other essential elements that emerge from the seafloor and flow into the global oceans. However, due to the challenges associated with sampling the deep sea, most studies to date have captured only snapshots of these communities, leaving significant knowledge gaps about how microbes and viruses adapt, evolve, and respond to changes in this environment. The researchers use infrastructure from the Ocean Observatories Initiative to conduct high-resolution monitoring of genetic changes over five years to investigate microbial communities’ function, ecology, and evolution at hydrothermal vents, which are thought to be one of the most ancient habitats on Earth. Data from this project are expected to be a valuable scientific resource for these and other researchers to address future questions. For example, it will inform our understanding about the early evolution of life on Earth and how microbes and their viruses respond to anthropogenic disturbances like deep-sea mining and climate change. This project engages and trains undergraduate students as scientific partners at all stages of the research process, facilitating their entry into scientific networks. Additionally, a new course guides college students in examining science within its cultural, political, and social context. The project also includes a program with a local elementary school to increase science literacy among young students. The main objective of this project is to understand the ecological and evolutionary forces that mold hydrothermal vent microbial and viral populations over time. This project uses instruments from the Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array (OOI RCA) at Axial Seamount in the Northeast Pacific Ocean to collect hydrothermal fluid and DNA samples at regular intervals, approximately every 10-20 days over five years, to yield a time series of microbial and viral abundances and metagenomes. The specific scientific aims of this project are to: 1) identify environmental drivers of microbial community composition and function through time-series analyses of 16S rRNA amplicon and metagenomic datasets combined with chemistry, pH, and temperature data; 2) use single nucleotide variant and gene content variation over time in metagenome-assembled genomes to investigate evolutionary dynamics of microbial populations; and 3) assess models of viral population dynamics by tracking microdiversity within viral and microbial metagenomes over time. Comparative samples and data collected from other vent sites are used to determine the generalization of the results.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.