Collaborative Research: Edge CMT: Polygenic traits of heat stress phenome in coral "dark genes" from genome to functional applications

在这个项目中，研究人员将利用基因组学、遗传学和细胞生物学来了解珊瑚基因在热应激期间的功能。热应激经常导致珊瑚“白化”，这正在损害世界各地的珊瑚礁，并对海洋生物多样性构成威胁。基因是DNA的功能单位，珊瑚对热应激的反应称为其表型。有许多基因参与了热反应表型的实现，本项目将对这些基因进行研究。这一点很重要，因为许多这些基因和其他基因的功能以及它们如何影响珊瑚的表型还不清楚。此外，许多珊瑚胁迫基因在其他生物中是未知的(即它们出现在珊瑚中)，因此为发现新基因的功能提供了机会。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于理解已知和新基因如何发挥作用，这有助于珊瑚礁的保护--珊瑚礁是一种对国家安全和经济增长至关重要的资源。最后，该项目将资助早期职业科学家，并通过培训和教育不同的科学劳动力来产生更广泛的影响。这项提议的首要目标是确定多细胞生物体中应激反应的机制驱动因素，重点是具有生态重要性的珊瑚。为了实现这一目标，将应用端到端的方法，从基因到表型，再到细胞生物学，使用全基因组和单细胞数据的多组学和网络方法。这项工作将阐明具有不同繁殖策略和地理起源的物种的珊瑚应激现象组，以确定已知和未知(暗)基因的功能。生成这个知识库将改变珊瑚生物学，更广泛地说，将提供一个研究平台，用于测试关于海洋和陆地其他生态系统的弹性假设，这在气候变化加速的情况下尤为重要。该项目旨在提高对生命系统的关键特性如何从基因组的相互作用中出现的理解和预测能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this project, the researchers will use genomics, genetics, and cell biology to understand the function of coral genes during heat stress. Thermal stress often causes the “bleaching” (whitening) of corals that is harming reefs worldwide and is a threat to marine biodiversity. Genes are the functional unit of DNA and how the coral reacts to heat stress is called its phenotype. There are many genes involved in achieving the heat response phenotype and they will be studied in this project. This is important because the function of many of these and other genes and how they influence the phenotype of corals are not understood. In addition, many of the coral stress genes are unknown in other organisms (i.e., they arose in corals), and therefore present the opportunity to discover the function of novel genes. This research is important because it will help in the understanding of how both known and novel genes function, which can aid in the conservation of coral reefs- a resource that is important for national security and economic growth. Lastly, this project will fund early career scientists and lead to broader impacts through the training and education of a diverse workforce in science.The overarching goal of this proposal is to determine the mechanistic drivers of the stress response in multicellular organisms, with a focus on the ecologically important corals. To achieve this goal, application of an end-to-end approach that extends from genes to phenotypes, to cell biology, using multi-omics and network methods with both holobiont and single cell data will be applied. This work will elucidate the coral stress phenome in species with differing reproductive strategies and geographical origins to determine the functions of both known and unknown (dark) genes. Generating this knowledge base will transform coral biology and more broadly, provide a research platform for testing hypotheses about the resilience of other ecosystems, marine and terrestrial, which is particularly important under accelerating climate change. This project aims to increase the understanding and predictive capability of how key properties of living systems emerge from the interaction of genomes.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.