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Piezophilic adaptation in deep sea amphipods

深海片脚类动物的亲压适应

基本信息

批准号：
NE/N01149X/1
负责人：
Stuart Piertney
金额：
$ 53.67万
依托单位：
University of Aberdeen
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2016 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FN01149X%2F1
关键词：
Piezophilic adaptation deep sea amphipods

项目摘要

The deep ocean (below 2000m) represents the last ecological frontier on the planet. It accounts for >86% of the ocean biosphere, yet we know remarkably little about the organisms that live and thrive there. Recent developments in engineering technology has allowed us to begin to explore and sample the oceans right down to full ocean depth at close to 11000 metres at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. This has given us a lot of insight into what organisms are found at the deepest depths of our oceans, but what is still a big unknown is how these organisms can survive the crushing pressures that should otherwise compromise, or indeed prevent, many basic cellular processes. Clearly, deep ocean organisms must have accumulated a number of evolutionary adaptations that means their biochemistry is not affected in the same way by pressure as terrestrial or shallow water species. It is the underlying aim of this project to identify what these adaptations are. The "front line" of attack by high pressure on biochemical processes is on the RNA molecules that carry the "blueprint" for all of the proteins that an organism must make throughout life, and are also directly involved in protein construction. We think that deep ocean organisms have adapted to high pressures by having a suite of RNA molecules that are structurally more stable, and likewise code for proteins with a higher stability when they form. We can test these ideas by comparing the nucleotide sequences of lots of different genes in organisms that occupy the full range of ocean depths. We will focus on a group of cosmopolitan amphipod crustaceans that occur in all the oceans and at all depths. What is unique about our project is we have already collected the samples we need to undertake this type of analysis, which is a non-trivial task and would otherwise be preclusively expensive and time-consuming.We predict we will see the signatures of selection operating on lots of genes that help chaperone biochemical reactions in those amphipod species occurring at deeper depth, and suggest that pressure will constrain the ability to change sequence through mutation. Moreover we expect to see that the RNA sequences in deeper species generally have a higher stability by having a higher ratio of the more stable building blocks. We will also move beyond just looking at RNA sequence and also examine the 3D structures these molecules make. Again we predict there are certain conformations that the RNA molecules will tend to form (termed hairpins) in the deeper species, and there will some building blocks in the RNA molecules that act like bridge keystones for maintaining structure that will be conserved across the different amphipod species we are examining.Overall, this project can provide the first insights into some of the evolutionary processes that define which species are present in the deep sea, and conversely explain why some species are absent. This can tell us a lot about the rules that govern the spatial distribution of organisms across the planet and in different habitats, and provide some information about how communities in different areas will be affected by a changing environment.

深海（2000米以下）代表着地球上最后的生态前沿。它占海洋生物圈的 86% 以上，但我们对在那里生活和繁衍的生物体知之甚少。工程技术的最新发展使我们能够开始探索并采样海洋，直至马里亚纳海沟底部接近 11000 米的整个海洋深度。这让我们对在海洋最深处发现的生物体有了很多了解，但仍然是一个很大的未知数，这些生物体如何能够在巨大的压力下生存，否则这些压力会损害甚至阻止许多基本的细胞过程。显然，深海生物一定已经积累了许多进化适应，这意味着它们的生物化学不会像陆地或浅水物种那样受到压力的影响。该项目的根本目标是确定这些适应措施是什么。生化过程高压攻击的“前线”是RNA分子，这些分子携带着生物体一生必须制造的所有蛋白质的“蓝图”，并且也直接参与蛋白质的构建。我们认为，深海生物体通过拥有一套结构更稳定的 RNA 分子来适应高压，并且同样在形成时编码具有更高稳定性的蛋白质。我们可以通过比较占据整个海洋深度的生物体中许多不同基因的核苷酸序列来检验这些想法。我们将重点关注出现在所有海洋和所有深度的一组世界性片脚类甲壳类动物。我们项目的独特之处在于，我们已经收集了进行此类分析所需的样本，这是一项不平凡的任务，否则将非常昂贵且耗时。我们预测，我们将看到对大量基因进行选择的特征，这些基因有助于这些片脚类物种在更深的深度发生分子伴侣生化反应，并表明压力将限制通过突变改变序列的能力。此外，我们期望看到更深的物种中的 RNA 序列通常通过具有更高比例的更稳定的构建块而具有更高的稳定性。我们还将不仅仅观察 RNA 序列，还将检查这些分子形成的 3D 结构。我们再次预测，在更深的物种中，RNA 分子将倾向于形成某些构象（称为发夹），并且 RNA 分子中将存在一些构建块，它们充当桥梁基石，用于维持在我们正在研究的不同端足类物种中保守的结构。总体而言，该项目可以为定义深海中存在哪些物种的一些进化过程提供第一个见解，并反过来解释为什么某些物种缺席。这可以告诉我们很多关于控制整个地球和不同栖息地的生物体空间分布的规则，并提供一些关于不同地区的群落将如何受到不断变化的环境影响的信息。