Transitions: Metagenomics of aquatic biofilms: evaluating linkages between autotrophic and heterotrophic microbial diversity and function

转变：水生生物膜的宏基因组学：评估自养和异养微生物多样性和功能之间的联系

• 批准号: 2153767
• 负责人: Allison Rober
• 金额: $ 68.72万
• 依托单位: Ball State 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: 2022-05-15 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2153767&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Transitions; Metagenomics; aquatic; biofilms; evaluating

This Transitions to Excellence in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences research grant will support implementation of cutting-edge molecular techniques into the research and teaching program of a mid-career scientist allowing her to adopt empowering technologies that are not accessible in her current research environment. Rapid advances in molecular techniques have facilitated widespread taxonomic characterization of microbial communities. Current research is quickly moving beyond just characterizing diversity (who is there?), towards a focus on linking individual species with their functional properties (what do they do?). However, the study of some microbial communities remain relatively unexplored with respect to diversity or function. This is particularly true for benthic biofilms (i.e., assemblage of algae, bacteria, and fungi) in freshwater ecosystems. The overarching goal of this research is to use molecular techniques to bridge the gap between microbial community composition and functioning within natural environments. Findings from this research will make significant contributions to an understanding of, and ability to, link microbial diversity with ecosystem function. By providing data from natural microbial communities to publically available repositories, this project will facilitate improved taxonomic resolution and genomic library construction. These data may also be useful beyond their ecological application given that identification of novel microbial associations in natural environments could facilitate the design of synthetic microbial communities as a tool for industrial cultivation and biotechnology. In addition to charting new conceptual ground in molecular ecology, this project will provide research experiences for graduate and undergraduate students from under-represented groups. Many ecosystem processes (e.g., carbon cycling) are mediated by microorganisms and understanding how microbial functions scale up to the ecosystem level is an important goal in ecology. Boreal peatlands provide a model ecosystem to examine relationships between microbial structure and function owing to their role in global carbon storage. In this project, researchers will use molecular techniques to examine both the eukaryotic and prokaryotic diversity of the biofilm microbiome and identify functional traits along a hydrologic gradient and relate changes in microbiome structure and function to peatland carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Biofilm composition and metabolism are strongly influenced by differences in hydrologically mediated environmental conditions with consequences for net CO2 emissions. Conditions that promote a higher proportion of autotrophic (algae) biofilm results in greater CO2 uptake from the atmosphere, whereas a biofilm dominated by heterotrophic microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) promotes greater CO2 emissions. The composition of autotrophic and heterotrophic components of the biofilm are intricately linked and perturbations to one portion of the biofilm community can cascade through the rest. Therefore, it is anticipated that changes in gene expression that control metabolic functions within the autotrophic component of the biofilm will be reflected in the make-up and functioning of the heterotrophic component of the biofilm and vice versa. This project is expected to reveal the influence of environmental conditions on gene expression within the autotrophic and heterotrophic components of the biofilm. Further, this research is likely to facilitate the discovery of correlated patterns of abundance between certain eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbes, and link trait-mediated metabolic functions at the community level. Using metagenomic approaches to evaluate how abiotic and biotic interactions shape microbial communities and microbial-mediated biogeochemical processes addresses a critical knowledge gap in the field of aquatic microbiology and will provide a better understanding of how aquatic microbes participate in biogeochemical cycling within peatlands. Methodological procedures will be integrated into college curriculum, providing opportunities for a diversity of students to gain exposure to ecological molecular techniques and applications that will prepare them for the increasing use of applied microbiology in industry, environmental monitoring, and management careers.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.

向卓越的分子和细胞生物科学研究赠款的转变将支持实施尖端的分子技术，以中期科学家的研究和教学计划，使她能够采用当前研究环境中无法访问的授权技术。分子技术的快速进步促进了微生物群落的广泛分类特征。当前的研究正在迅速发展，而不是仅仅表征多样性（谁在那里？），而是专注于将单个物种与其功能特性联系起来（它们做什么？）。但是，对某些微生物群落的研究在多样性或功能方面仍然相对尚未探索。对于淡水生态系统中底栖生物膜（即，藻类，细菌和真菌的组合）尤其如此。这项研究的总体目标是使用分子技术来弥合微生物群落组成和自然环境内部功能之间的差距。这项研究的发现将为了解微生物多样性与生态系统功能的理解和能力做出重大贡献。通过从天然微生物社区提供公开可用的存储库的数据，该项目将促进分类学分辨率和基因组图书馆构建的改进。鉴于自然环境中新型微生物关联的鉴定可以促进合成微生物群落作为工业培养和生物技术的工具，因此这些数据也可能是有用的。除了绘制分子生态学的新概念基础外，该项目还将为来自代表性不足的群体的研究生和本科生提供研究经验。许多生态系统过程（例如碳循环）是由微生物介导的，并且了解微生物功能如何扩展到生态系统水平是生态学的重要目标。北方泥炭地提供了一个模型生态系统，以检查微生物结构与功能之间的关系，因为它们在全球碳存储中的作用。在该项目中，研究人员将使用分子技术来检查生物膜微生物组的真核和原始性多样性，并鉴定沿水文梯度的功能性状，并将微生物组结构的变化和功能与泥炭地二氧化碳（CO2）发射有关。生物膜组成和代谢受到水文介导的环境条件差异的强烈影响，对净CO2排放的影响。促进较高比例的自养（藻类）生物膜的条件会导致大气中的二氧化碳吸收更大，而由异养微生物（细菌和真菌）主导的生物膜可促进更大的CO2排放。生物膜的自养和异养成分的组成复杂地连接，并且与生物膜群落的一部分扰动可以通过其余部分级联。因此，预计基因表达的变化将在生物膜的自养分成分内控制代谢功能，将反映在生物膜的异养分成分的构成和功能中，反之亦然。预计该项目将揭示环境条件对生物膜自养和异养成分内基因表达的影响。此外，这项研究可能有助于发现某些真核和原核微生物之间的丰度相关模式，并在社区层面上连接性状介导的代谢功能。使用宏基因组方法来评估非生物和生物相互作用如何塑造微生物群落和微生物介导的生物地球化学过程解决了水生微生物学领域的关键知识差距，并将更好地理解水生微生物在Peatlands中参与生物地球化学循环。方法论程序将被整合到大学课程中，为多样化的学生提供机会，以获取生态分子技术和应用，这将使它们在行业，环境监测和管理职业中不断增加应用微生物学的使用做准备。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，反映了通过评估的知识群体的支持和众所周知的基础。

项目成果

Structuring Life After Death: Plant Leachates Promote CO2 Uptake by Regulating Microbial Biofilm Interactions in a Northern Peatland Ecosystem

构建死后生命：植物渗滤液通过调节北部泥炭地生态系统中微生物生物膜相互作用促进二氧化碳吸收

• DOI: 10.1007/s10021-023-00820-w
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Ecosystems
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Rober, Allison R.;Lankford, Allyson J.;Kane, Evan S.;Turetsky, Merritt R.;Wyatt, Kevin H.
• 通讯作者: Wyatt, Kevin H.