RUI: Development and application of genomic resources for ascidian taxonomy and holobiont evolution

RUI：海鞘分类学和全生物进化基因组资源的开发和应用

• 批准号: 2122475
• 负责人: Lauren Stefaniak
• 金额: $ 66.29万
• 依托单位: Coastal Carolina University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2122475&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Development; application; genomic; resources

The ascidians, informally known as sea squirts, are an important group of marine invertebrates. For instance, they are our closest invertebrate relatives, and are thus often used as models to study vertebrate development and evolution. Further, certain ascidians are very effective at invading new coastal habitats where they thrive, altering natural communities and causing considerable economic loss to the aquaculture industry. Identifying ascidian species in the wild is important but can be challenging, as they differ only subtly in their appearance and also in the short stretches of DNA typically used to identify marine species. Thus, finding a new set of DNA regions that will allow researchers to more accurately identify ascidian species and address important questions in invasive species spread will be a key aspect of this research. The research will also focus on the microbes of the sea squirt gut. These appear to play a key role in allowing certain species to succeed when they invade new regions. This research will better characterize ascidian gut microbes, shed light on whether these microbes evolve in concert with the hosts they occur in, and help shed light on the role microbes play in allowing the successful establishment of sea squirts in new habitats. This project will provide hands-on research experience for at least nine undergraduate students at three universities and will train 24 students in ascidian taxonomy, including students underrepresented in STEM. A workshop on ascidian diversity in both relatively pristine and altered marine habitats will be offered to natural resource managers and other scientists. This project will develop new nuclear genome markers across the ascidian tree of life, which will enhance opportunities to conduct phylogenetic and systematic research on the group. Further, analysis of these novel markers, along with morphological studies, will be used to survey and inventory ascidians from both harbor and reef habitats in Belize, a biodiversity hot spot for the group; information on taxonomic identification and distribution which will be made freely available as a catalog. This inventory will extend and update our knowledge of ascidian biodiversity and distribution along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, a key, threatened ecosystem. It will also document the prevalence of introduced ascidian species and provide identifications based on integrated molecular and morphological data for over 40 species never previously sequenced. Furthermore, this project will characterize the microbiome of the ascidian gut. This microbiome plays a key role in allowing certain ascidians to successfully invade new habitats and may have been important in ascidian evolution. The variation in structural (taxonomic groups) and functional (specific gene) features will be mapped out across the ascidian tree of life to provide more insight into the role of microbial symbionts in ascidian evolution. By combining morphology with newly developed molecular markers, applying this integrative approach to introduced species identification, and investigating microbial symbiosis as a driver of ascidian evolution, this project will significantly advance our understanding of ascidian diversity and phylogenetics and the factors promoting biological invasions.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.

海沿岸，非正式地称为海洋喷气，是一群重要的海洋无脊椎动物。 例如，它们是我们最接近的无脊椎动物亲戚，因此经常被用作研究脊椎动物发育和进化的模型。此外，某些西班牙人在入侵新的沿海栖息地非常有效，改变了自然社区，并对水产养殖业造成了巨大的经济损失。识别野外的海囊物种很重要，但可能具有挑战性，因为它们的外观仅在外观上略有不同，并且在通常用于识别海洋物种的DNA短暂范围内也有所不同。因此，找到一组新的DNA区域，这些DNA区域将使研究人员更准确地识别海外物种并在入侵物种传播中解决重要问题将是这项研究的关键方面。该研究还将集中于海洋喷水肠道的微生物。这些似乎在允许某些物种入侵新区域时取得成功方面起着关键作用。这项研究将更好地表征海囊肠道微生物，阐明这些微生物是否与出现的宿主一起演奏，并有助于阐明微生物在允许在新栖息地成功建立海洋喷水中所扮演的角色。该项目将为三所大学的至少九名本科生提供动手研究经验，并将培训24名Aspidian分类学学生，其中包括STEM中人数不足的学生。自然资源经理和其他科学家将提供有关相对原始和改变海洋栖息地的海岸多样性的研讨会。该项目将在整个西西亚生命树中开发新的核基因组标志物，这将增强对该小组进行系统发育和系统研究的机会。此外，对这些新颖标记的分析以及形态学研究将用于调查伯利兹的港口和礁石栖息地的库存和库存库存，这是该小组的生物多样性热点。分类学识别和分布的信息将作为目录免费提供。该库存将扩展和更新我们对沿中美洲障碍礁系统的海藻生物多样性和分布的了解，这是一个钥匙，威胁生态系统。它还将记录引入的海囊物种的普遍性，并基于以前从未测序的40多种物种的综合分子和形态数据提供识别。此外，该项目将表征海​​囊肠道的微生物组。该微生物组在允许某些海沿岸成功入侵新栖息地方面起着关键作用，并且可能在海岸进化中很重要。结构性（分类组）和功能（特定基因）特征的变化将在整个生命中绘制出来，以提供对微生物共生体在海岸进化中的作用的更深入的见解。通过将形态与新开发的分子标记相结合，将这种综合方法应用于引入物种识别，并研究微生物共生作为海藻进化的驱动力，将大大提高我们对海藻多样性和系统遗传学的理解，以及对促进NSF的Inforthorial Wortherial deem the Intortial teem the Indortial teem deem的促进的因素，并促进了NSF的范围。影响审查标准。