EAGER: Fertilizing the Tree of Life with novel taxa from deep-sea vent microbial metagenomes collected over time and space

深海温泉沿着大洋中脊或深海火山出现，是地球上最缺乏探索的环境。 当非常热的充满气体和富含矿物质的水与深度超过1500米（1英里）的冷海水混合时，矿物质从溶液中沉淀出来，产生多孔岩石，通常被称为“烟囱”。这些结构被非常丰富的嗜热微生物生活所殖民，其中许多是科学上的新事物。研究人员将利用尖端的基因组技术，对这些高温生态系统中的微生物基因组进行测序，这些微生物来自过去25年来在大西洋、太平洋和印度洋收集的样本。这项研究将改变我们对地球上生命的范围和复杂性的理解，并将提供关于生命如何在这些极端条件下蓬勃发展和进化的见解。此外，本研究中解锁的基因组信息可用于搜索未来的生物技术和工业应用。 此外，这项研究产生的数据将作为2023年6月通过的联合国公海协议的微生物基因组资源，该协议的部分目的是防止公海生物多样性丧失。该研究的总体目标是综合深海热液喷口矿床中古细菌和细菌环境基因组的空间和时间动态。这一方法具有变革性，因为它将有可能建立一个太平洋、大西洋和印度洋深海热液喷口矿床微生物基因组生物多样性的广泛时间框架，并为深海喷口代表性不强的谱系提供进一步的分类学和多样性见解。具体而言，将通过将最近的宏基因组与通过本研究获得的宏基因组（跨越1999年至2018年的数据）相结合，对具有代表性的深海热液喷口宏基因组和文化收藏品基因组进行表征。将对深海喷口环境中新属、科、目、纲和门的参考（类型）宏基因组组合基因组进行整理、命名并存入Genbank、基因组分类数据库和最近开发的SeqCode。这些基因组将被整合到分类学表征和分支的合成中，例如Aquificota，Aciduliprofundales和Desulfurellales（Hippea spp.）以及热变形菌的分类修订。使用宏基因组学方法，研究将探索功能和/或生物学基因组变化是否随着时间的推移从单一和全球网站发生，并解决微生物分类学中的突出问题，如类型菌株环境基因组如何或是否随时间演变，甚至空间;理解地球上生命进化的关键过程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过以下方式获得支持：使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。

Deep-sea hot springs occurring along mid-ocean ridges or in deep-sea volcanoes, are some of the most poorly explored environments on Earth. When the very hot gas-filled and mineral-rich water mixes with the cold seawater at depths greater than 1500 meters (1 mile), the minerals precipitate out of solution producing porous rocks often referred to as ‘chimneys’. These structures are colonized by a very rich diversity of heat-loving microbial life, much of which is new to science. The researchers will use cutting-edge genomic technology to sequence the genomes of the microbes in these high temperature ecosystems from samples collected over the past 25 years in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The research will transform our understanding of the extent and complexity of life on Earth and will provide insights into how life thrives and evolves under these extreme conditions. Further, the genomic information unlocked in this study can be used to search for future biotechnological and industrial applications. Additionally, data generated in this research will serve as a microbial genomic resource for the UN High Seas agreement adopted in June 2023, which in part aims prevent biodiversity loss in the high seas. The overall goal of the research is to synthesize the spatial and temporal dynamics of archaeal and bacterial environmental genomes in deep-sea hydrothermal vent deposits. This approach is transformative as it will be possible to develop an extensive temporal framework of microbial genomic biodiversity from deep-sea hydrothermal vent deposits in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and provide further taxonomic and diversity insights into poorly represented lineages from deep-sea vents. Specifically, representative deep-sea hydrothermal vent metagenomes and culture collection genomes will be characterized by integrating recent metagenomes with those obtained through this research, spanning data from 1999-2018. Reference (type) metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) of new genera, families, orders, classes, and phyla from deep-sea vent environments will be curated, named and deposited in Genbank, the Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) and in the recently developed SeqCode. These genomes will be integrated into taxonomic characterization and synthesis of the clades such has the Aquificota, Aciduliprofundales and Desulfurellales (Hippea spp.) and the taxonomic revision of the Thermoprotei. Using metagenomic approaches, the research will explore whether functional and/or phylogenomic changes have occurred over time from single and global sites, and address outstanding questions in microbial taxonomy, such as how or whether type-strain environmental genomes evolve over time, or even spatially; key processes to understanding the evolution of life on Earth.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.