Postdoctoral Fellowship: OCE-PRF: Diving into the chemical signatures and spatial variability of Caribbean coral reef health

博士后奖学金：OCE-PRF：深入研究加勒比珊瑚礁健康的化学特征和空间变异性

• 批准号: 2307424
• 负责人: Brianna Garcia
• 金额: $ 34.32万
• 依托单位: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307424&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Postdoctoral; Fellowship; OCE; PRF; Diving

Coral reefs are one of the most diverse, productive, and threatened ecosystems on the planet. The rich biodiversity hosted by coral reefs has enhanced the economies of coastal countries and the livelihoods of people around the world. Unfortunately, coral populations have declined by 50% in the last 50 years due to both natural and human-caused stressors, including increasing rates of disease. New diseases are spreading quickly, affecting many coral species and causing downstream ecological consequences. To help protect these important ecosystems, it is necessary to develop better methods to detect and intervene early in the disease process. This project aims to identify small biomolecules called metabolites that are associated with a specific type of coral disease called Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD), which is spreading rapidly throughout the Caribbean. By characterizing these metabolites, researchers can better understand the metabolic changes that occur during the onset and progression of SCTLD, and potentially identify early warning signs of the disease before visible symptoms appear. Current methods for detecting changes in metabolites are inefficient and lack spatial resolution. This project seeks to provide a more thorough investigation of the chemical changes associated with SCTLD and improve our understanding of how metabolites can serve as traceable signatures of coral disease. This will allow for earlier intervention and prevention efforts to protect these essential ecosystems. The Broader Impacts for this project include support for a first-generation female PI from an underrepresented group. The PI will work with groups that have been underrepresented in STEM through local (Woods Hole, MA) and global (United States Virgin Islands) activities. Additional broader impacts include participation in: (1) efforts aimed at improving science communication, (2) public outreach activities, and (3) undergraduate mentoring.Current studies of SCTLD have relied on bulk homogenates or slurries of coral tissue using untargeted metabolomic surveys and/or microbial measurements using RNA sequencing. The primary objective of the proposed research is to leverage targeted and untargeted metabolomics, ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry, and recent advances in the analysis of dissolved metabolites to characterize the metabolic profiles of SCTLD across a spatial gradient. The work will allow us to quantify the chemical composition of three individual coral microhabitats (i.e., tissue, mucus, and skeleton) in addition to the surrounding seawater and correlate these dynamic profiles with disease progression. Metabolites released or taken up by the coral holobiont serve as invisible signals that can improve our understanding of disease progression, provide diagnostic biomarkers, and allow for earlier intervention and prevention efforts. Using novel metabolomics methods and chemical derivatization, this project will allow us to capture and quantify ecologically relevant, labile polar metabolites with extraction efficiencies of less than 1% using traditional dissolved phase analyses. This project will establish a link between metabolome changes and disease susceptibility by studying the intra- and inter-species variability of coral microhabitats across six different coral species ranging in SCTLD susceptibility. The identification of chemical biomarkers of SCTLD and understanding the role different coral niches play in disease progression will supply coral reef conservationists with rapid detection methods, in addition to providing researchers with new information essential for elucidating pathogens and mechanisms of disease inception. Products of this research will be of broad interest to a diverse group of scientists, including chemists, ecologists, and coral reef disease experts, in addition to the broader public, especially those in coastal regions affected by the ecological and socio-economic impacts of SCTLD or other coral diseases.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.

珊瑚礁是地球上最多样化、生产力最高且受威胁的生态系统之一。珊瑚礁丰富的生物多样性增强了沿海国家的经济和世界各地人民的生计。不幸的是，由于自然和人为压力因素（包括疾病发病率上升），过去 50 年珊瑚数量减少了 50%。新疾病正在迅速传播，影响许多珊瑚物种并造成下游生态后果。为了帮助保护这些重要的生态系统，有必要开发更好的方法来早期检测和干预疾病过程。该项目旨在识别与一种称为石珊瑚组织损失病 (SCTLD) 的特定类型珊瑚疾病相关的称为代谢物的小生物分子，该疾病正在整个加勒比海地区迅速蔓延。通过表征这些代谢物，研究人员可以更好地了解 SCTLD 发病和进展期间发生的代谢变化，并有可能在明显症状出现之前识别该疾病的早期预警信号。目前检测代谢物变化的方法效率低下且缺乏空间分辨率。该项目旨在对与 SCTLD 相关的化学变化进行更彻底的研究，并提高我们对代谢物如何作为珊瑚疾病的可追踪特征的理解。这将有助于及早进行干预和预防工作，以保护这些重要的生态系统。该项目的更广泛影响包括支持来自代表性不足群体的第一代女性 PI。 PI 将通过本地（马萨诸塞州伍兹霍尔）和全球（美属维尔京群岛）活动与 STEM 中代表性不足的群体合作。其他更广泛的影响包括参与：(1) 旨在改善科学传播的努力，(2) 公共外展活动，以及 (3) 本科生指导。目前 SCTLD 的研究依赖于使用非针对性代谢组学调查和/或使用 RNA 测序进行微生物测量的珊瑚组织的块状匀浆或浆液。拟议研究的主要目标是利用靶向和非靶向代谢组学、超高分辨率质谱以及溶解代谢物分析的最新进展来表征 SCTLD 在空间梯度上的代谢特征。这项工作将使我们能够量化除了周围海水之外的三个单独珊瑚微生境（即组织、粘液和骨骼）的化学成分，并将这些动态特征与疾病进展相关联。珊瑚全生物释放或吸收的代谢物作为看不见的信号，可以提高我们对疾病进展的了解，提供诊断生物标志物，并允许早期干预和预防工作。该项目采用新颖的代谢组学方法和化学衍生化，使我们能够捕获和量化生态相关的不稳定极性代谢物，使用传统溶解相分析的提取效率低于 1%。该项目将通过研究 SCTLD 易感性范围内的六种不同珊瑚物种的珊瑚微生境的物种内和物种间变异性，建立代谢组变化与疾病易感性之间的联系。识别 SCTLD 的化学生物标志物并了解不同珊瑚生态位在疾病进展中所起的作用，将为珊瑚礁保护主义者提供快速检测方法，此外还为研究人员提供了阐明病原体和疾病发生机制所必需的新信息。这项研究的产品将引起不同科学家群体的广泛兴趣，包括化学家、生态学家和珊瑚礁疾病专家，以及更广泛的公众，特别是那些受 SCTLD 或其他珊瑚疾病的生态和社会经济影响的沿海地区的人们。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持 标准。