System-level characterisation of the siphonophore, Indo-Pacific man o' war

印度-太平洋人O‘war(蓝鼻虫)，是管水母目的一种蛇类。这些动物经常成群结队地出现在澳大利亚的海滩上，每年都会造成数千起叮咬事件。该项目建议对蓝知更鸟的基因组、转录组、表观基因组和蛋白质组进行分析，以深入了解其生命周期、行为和毒素。预期的结果包括产生与蓝瓶子基因调控及其毒素谱有关的新信息，这将对未来叮咬治疗策略的设计非常有益。鉴于蓝知更鸟是由功能特化的息肉组成的群体，这项研究也将为动物多细胞的起源和进化提供重要的新见解。

The Indo-Pacific man o' war (bluebottle), is a cnidarian from the siphonophore order. These animals frequent Australian beaches in swarms and cause thousands of stings every year. The project proposes to profile the genome, transcriptome, epigenome, and proteome of the bluebottle to gain insight into its life cycle, its behaviour, and toxins. Expected outcomes include the generation of novel information related to bluebottle gene regulation and its toxin repertoire, which will be highly beneficial for the design of future sting treatment strategies. Given that the bluebottle is a colony made of functionally specialised polyps, this study will also provide significant novel insight into the origins and evolution of animal multicellularity.