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

这种绿色大型海藻或海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。这些绿色海藻中最熟悉的是石莼属，即“海石莼”。这些特别重要，因为它们是陆地和海洋之间的联系;农业肥料或城市污水处理厂的营养流失增加，可能导致农田和城市边界河流和海洋的营养水平升高。这些富集的沃茨也可以通过富含营养的深海沃茨的春季涌升而自然产生，反过来，可以看到生活在其中的海藻异常迅速的生长;所谓的“绿色潮汐”可能会阻塞全球沿海沃茨，并对2008年青岛奥运帆船赛造成威胁，2010年覆盖英国南海岸沿着的海滩，并且每年污染布雷东海岸。然而，我们对这些极其重要的生物仍然知之甚少。这项拟议中的研究旨在提供这些绿色海藻之一--扁石莼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引人注目地生长的基因。英国在绿色海藻研究方面有着悠久的传统，这项提议将为研究海洋海藻生态学和生物学的“下一代”基因组实验提供一个框架，从而为这一传统增添新的内容。

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.