Selection and establishment of charophyte algae model organisms (CharMod)

轮藻模式生物（CharMod）的选择与建立

• 批准号: 410739858
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Stefan A. Rensing
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Biozentrum Klein Flottbek und Botanischer Garten
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/410739858?language=en
• 关键词: Selection; establishment; charophyte; algae; model

Land plants are monophyletic in origin, most probably deriving from a single successful colonization of the terrestrial habitat by a freshwater charophyte alga ca. 500 million years ago. It can be concluded that the charophyte ancestors of land plants, in contrast to the green algae, must necessarily have carried genetically encoded biochemical and molecular adaptive mechanisms enabling them to adapt to the environmental extremes encountered on land.To deepen our evolutionary understanding, and to meet the challenge of maintaining and improving food production, it is essential to learn which traits enabled charophyte (streptophyte) algae to evolve to land plants, adapting to one of the most drastic habitat changes conceivable.One main reason that - so far - only little attention has been paid to traits enabling environmental resilience in charophyte algae is the lack of well established model organisms.Hence, our joined project CharMod therefore seeks: (a) to identify accessions with model organism potential from Charophyceae, Coleochaetophyceae and Zygnematophyceae, representing the classes most closely related to land plants. We aim to identify fast growing organisms with relatively small genomes, capable to perform their life cycle in vitro under axenic conditions, (b) to establish sequence resources on genomic and transcriptomic level for selected accessions, (c) to establish tools to genetically modify these algae, and (d) to carry out proof of concept comparative experiments on osmotic stress and hormonal signaling.It is expected that by providing robust model organisms, related sequence data and experimental tools, this project will help a growing scientific community to perform research on the molecular adaptations having led to the colonization of land by the ancestors of extant charophyte algae.

陆地植物起源于单系，最有可能源自淡水轮藻类在陆地栖息地的一次成功殖民。五亿年前。可以得出的结论是，与绿藻相比，陆地植物的轮藻祖先必然携带基因编码的生化和分子适应机制，使它们能够适应陆地上遇到的极端环境。为了加深我们的进化理解，并应对维持和提高粮食生产的挑战，有必要了解轮藻（链藻）的哪些性状 藻类进化为陆地植物，适应可想象的最剧烈的栖息地变化之一。到目前为止，人们很少关注轮藻类环境适应能力的一个主要原因是缺乏完善的模式生物。因此，我们加入的 CharMod 项目寻求：（a）从轮藻纲、鞘藻纲和鞘藻纲中识别具有模式生物潜力的种质。 Zygnematophyceae，代表与陆地植物关系最密切的类别。我们的目标是识别具有相对较小基因组的快速生长的生物体，能够在无菌条件下在体外执行其生命周期，（b）为选定的种质建立基因组和转录组水平的序列资源，（c）建立对这些藻类进行基因改造的工具，以及（d）进行渗透压和激素信号传导的概念验证比较实验。预计通过提供稳健的模型生物体、相关序列数据 和实验工具，该项目将帮助不断壮大的科学界对分子适应性进行研究，这些适应性导致了现存轮藻的祖先在陆地上的殖民化。