ICBR: Capacity: Biological Collections: Provasoli-Guillard National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota (NCMA)

几千年来，藻类一直是沿海社区食物、饲料和肥料的天然来源。在过去的几十年里，现代生物技术在人类系统中使用藻类的范围迅速扩大，应用多样化，这在很大程度上要归功于藻类培养中心的维护和可用。位于毕格罗海洋科学实验室的国家海洋藻类和微生物群中心(NCMA)是一个公共资源，其使命是促进、支持和支持将藻类用于基础研究、教育和商业应用。近40年来，NCMA一直为世界各地的研究人员、学生、教育工作者和公司提供这一独特的资源，他们都对与微藻合作研究生物学、全球过程和生物技术中的基本问题感兴趣。这笔新的研究资金将继续支持NCMA履行其使命，并通过支持汇编关于其持有的每一种藻类的新的和现有的数据和信息，重要地扩大其藻类储备的价值。来自NCMA等备受尊敬的来源的专业策划的微藻培养收藏对于支持美国的生物研究至关重要。NCMA是少数专注于藻类生物多样性的培养收藏之一，也是美国唯一一家主要关注海洋微藻的培养收藏。NCMA管理着从世界各地分离的约2,800种不同的微藻和约1,600种大型藻类，其中许多藻类是独一无二的，代表着不可替代的遗传资源。该项目的具体科学目标是：1)最大限度地提高经过精选的海洋微藻的生物多样性，并扩大巨藻品系的保有量；2)扩大高通量冷冻保存能力，以满足日益增长的多样化用户群的需求；3)生成NCMA品系的表型特征数据，即光异质营养生长能力和量化的毒素含量；以及4)继续扩大我们的教育/劳动力组合。研究NCMA收集的经过精选的藻类提供了一个基因组、生理和/或进化的指南针；它基本上为外部研究人员指明了一个方向，使他们能够开发适当的假设、模型或诊断工具来调查他们在自然界中的问题。除了管理藻类外，NCMA的馆长和研究人员还产生关于藻类收藏特征的基本研究数据(例如，生长速度和能力、生化特征等)。为更广泛的科学和企业界创造巨大价值，并推动该领域的快速发展。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。

Algae have been a natural source of food, feeds and fertilizers for coastal communities for millennia. Modern biotechnology uses of algae in human systems have been rapidly expanding in scope and diversifying in application over the past few decades, in no small part due to the maintenance and availability of algae culture centers. The National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota (NCMA) at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is a public resource whose mission is to promote, support, and enable the use of algae for foundational research, education, and commercial applications. For nearly four decades, the NCMA has provided this unique resource for researchers, students at all levels, educators and companies worldwide, all interested in working with microalgae to investigate fundamental questions in biology, global processes and biotechnology. This new research funding will continue to support the NCMA in its mission, and importantly expand the value of its algae holdings by supporting the compilation of new and existing data and information about each of the algae strains it holds. Professionally curated microalgae culture collections, from well-respected sources such as NCMA, are essential to support biological research in the United States.The NCMA is one of a small number of culture collections focused on algal biodiversity, and the only one in the U.S. with a primary focus on marine microalgae. The NCMA curates ~2,800 distinct microalgal and ~1600 macroalgal strains isolated from around the world, with many of the algae in the NCMA Collection being unique and representing an irreplaceable genetic resource. The specific scientific objectives of this project are to 1) maximize curated biodiversity of marine microalgae, and expand macroalgae strain holdings; 2) expand high-throughput cryopreservation capabilities in order meet the increasing needs of a diversified user base; 3) generate phenotypic trait data for NCMA strains, namely photoheterotrophic growth capabilities and quantified toxin content; and 4) continue to expand our education/workforce portfolio. Studying curated algae from the NCMA collection provides a genomic, physiological and/or evolutionary compass; it essentially points external researchers in a direction that allows them to develop the appropriate hypotheses, models or diagnostic tools to investigate their questions in nature. Beyond curating algae, the NCMA curators and researchers generate essential research data on the characterization of its collection (e.g., growth rates and capabilities, biochemical characterization, etc.) creating great value to the broader scientific and entrepreneurial communities, and enabling rapid progress in this field.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.