Sequencing the 'Sea Lettuces'; key links between terrestrial agriculture and marine ecosystems

绿色巨藻是英国海滩和海岸线上最常见的景观之一，为许多海洋动物提供食物和庇护所。这些绿色海藻中最为人所熟知的是石榴属植物，也就是“海生菜”。这一点尤为重要，因为它们充当了陆地和海洋之间的纽带；农业化肥或城市污水处理厂的养分流失增加，可能会导致农田和城市交界的河流和海洋中的营养水平更高。这些丰富的海水也可以通过营养丰富的深层海水的春季涌流自然产生，反过来，它们可以看到生活在其中的海藻异常快速的生长；所谓的绿色潮汐可以扼杀世界各地的沿海水域，是威胁2008年青岛奥运会帆船比赛的罪魁祸首，2010年，它覆盖了英国南海岸的海滩，每年都会污染布雷顿海岸。然而，我们对这些令人惊讶的重要生物仍然知之甚少。这项拟议的研究旨在提供其中一种绿色海藻石榴的第一个基因组序列，让我们第一次看到它们的基因组结构和使它们如此戏剧性生长的基因。英国在绿色海藻研究方面有着深厚的传统，这项提案将提供一个框架，在此基础上开展研究海洋海藻生态和生物学的“下一代”基因组实验。

The green macroalgae, or seaweeds, are one of the most common sights on beaches and shorelines around the UK, providing food and shelter for many marine animals. The most familiar of these green seaweeds are the Ulva species; the 'sea lettuces'. These are particularly important because they act as a link between the land and the seas; increased nutrient run-off from agricultural fertilisers, or from urban sewage treatment plants, can lead to higher nutrient levels in the rivers and seas that border farmlands and cities. These enriched waters, which can also occur naturally through the spring upwelling of nutrient-rich deeper sea waters, can, in turn, see extraordinarily rapid growth of the seaweeds that live in them; the so-called 'green tides' that can choke coastal waters worldwide and which are responsible for threatening the Olympic sailing regatta at Qingdao in 2008, covering beaches along the south coast of the UK in 2010, and fouling the Breton coast annually.We still know very little, however, about these astonishingly important organisms. The proposed research aims to provide the first genome sequence of one of these green seaweeds, Ulva compressa, giving us a first look at their genomic architecture and at the genes which allow them to grow so dramatically. The UK has a strong tradition of green seaweed research, and this proposal would add to that tradition by providing a framework on which to hang 'Next Generation' genomic experiments that look at the ecology and biology of marine seaweeds.