Collaborative Research: Microdiversity drives ecosystem function: SAR11 bacteria as models for oceanic nitrogen loss

合作研究：微多样性驱动生态系统功能：SAR11 细菌作为海洋氮流失的模型

• 批准号: 2130185
• 负责人: Frank Stewart
• 金额: $ 48.68万
• 依托单位: Montana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-12-01 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2130185&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Microdiversity; drives; ecosystem

This project studies how low oxygen availability influences the biodiversity and ecological role of SAR11 bacteria, one of the most abundant microbial groups in the ocean. The work involves oceanographic sampling across a range of oxygen and nutrient levels in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific Ocean. Using a combination of genomic, microbiological, and biogeochemical methods, the study identifies the mechanisms by which SAR11 strains diversify into separate niches and species and contribute biochemically to the ecosystem, likely through removing nitrogen from seawater. The project equips the next generation of researchers and educators, notably those from underrepresented minority groups, to use oceanographic, genomic, and microbiological concepts to meet contemporary scientific challenges. This goal is met through a combination of bioinformatic workshops that target undergraduate students from the University System of Puerto Rico, middle school teacher-training workshops, and middle or high school teacher internships in the investigator’s labs. This multifaceted research and educational agenda fills a gap in our understanding of marine biological diversity, identifies the contribution of SAR11 bacteria to nutrient and carbon cycles in low oxygen oceans, and provides lessons and analytical tools to study microbial processes in other ecosystems.This project has two aims. Aim 1 employs comparative metagenomic and single-cell genomic analyses to identify metabolic properties that distinguish SAR11 clades from low oxygen regions and processes of selection or gene flow operating across the clades. Aim 2 combines microbial transcriptomics, incubation experiments with isotope tracers, and culturing to delimit the oxygen and nutrient conditions that define the niche space of each SAR11 clade and to correlate SAR11 gene transcription with community biochemical outcomes, including nitrogen loss through denitrification. The results of these aims and the informatic methods used to probe microbial microdiversity are disseminated through genomics-focused undergraduate workshops, and new teacher-training educational modules, including lab-based modules focused on the importance of microorganisms under environmental change in the oceans. Data, manuscripts, and informatics workflows from this project are made publicly available. The results are critical for resolving the processes that create and sustain microbial diversity in the oceans and informing biogeochemical models that predict how diversity influences ecosystem processes.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.

该项目研究了氧气可用性如何影响SAR11细菌的生物多样性和生态作用，SAR11细菌是海洋中最丰富的微生物群之一。这项工作涉及在北太平洋东部的一系列氧气和养分水平上进行海洋学采样。该研究结合了基因组，微生物学和生物地球化学方法的结合，确定了SAR11将多样化为单独的壁ches和物种多样化的机制，并在生物化学上对生态系统产生了贡献，这可能是通过从海水中去除氮的。该项目使下一代的研究人员和教育者（尤其是来自代表性不足的少数群体的人）使用海洋学，基因组和微生物学概念来应对当代科学挑战。通过生物信息学的研讨会的结合来实现这一目标，这些研讨会的目标是来自波多黎各大学系统，中学教师培训讲习班以及研究人员实验室中的中学或高中教师国际教师的本科生。这项多方面的研究和教育议程填补了我们对海洋生物学多样性的理解，确定了SAR11细菌对低氧海洋中营养素和碳周期的贡献，并提供了研究其他生态系统中的微生物过程的经验教训和分析工具。 AIM 1员工比较核能和单细胞基因组分析，以鉴定将SAR11进化枝与低氧区域区分开的代谢特性，以及在整个进化枝中运行的选择或基因流的过程或基因流的过程。 AIM 2结合了微生物转录组学，与同位素示踪剂的孵育实验，以及划定界定氧和营养条件的文化，这些条件定义了每个SAR11进化枝的利基空间，并将SAR11基因转录与社区生物化学灭绝相关联，包括硝化剂，包括硝基化损失。这些目的的结果以及用于探测微生物微生物多样性的信息的方法是通过以基因组学为中心的本科研讨会以及新的教师培训教育模块（包括基于实验室的基于实验室的模块，专注于海洋环境变化下的微生物的重要性）来传播的。该项目的数据，手稿和信息工作流程已公开可用。结果对于解决在海洋中创造和维持微生物多样性的过程以及为预测多样性如何影响生态系统过程的生物地球化学模型的过程至关重要。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来获得的支持。

项目成果

Novel Alphaproteobacteria transcribe genes for nitric oxide transformation at high levels in a marine oxygen-deficient zone

• DOI: 10.1128/aem.02099-23
• 发表时间: 2024-03-06
• 期刊: APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 4.4
• 作者: Elbon，Claire E.;Stewart，Frank J.;Glass，Jennifer B.
• 通讯作者: Glass，Jennifer B.