Understanding Metal Accumulation and Tolerance Processes in Extremophile Microalgae for Bioremediation Potential

项目描述：（最多4,000字）请确保此描述清楚地表明该项目如何属于BBSRC的职责范围，它如何实现新的工作方式，以及它如何与DTP主题（世界一流的基础生物科学，工业生物技术和生物能源或农业和粮食安全）保持一致。如果您已经获得了活体技能补充，请概述学生将在项目中学习的活体技能。将极端微生物微藻用于生物技术应用的潜力是巨大的，但是缺乏这些生物用于生物技术用途的特征和验证。这个多学科的博士项目将填补这一重要研究课题的空白。从矿山环境中鉴定出嗜极微藻菌株，该菌株可耐受极高酸度和极高浓度的有毒金属。研究这些生物将有助于更好地理解适应极端环境的机制，并在细胞和分子水平上提供潜在的新的应激耐受机制的细节。这些生物在工业生物技术方面也有许多应用和用途，例如污染物的生物修复、金属回收（金属生物采矿）以及可能作为新型高价值化学品的来源。本项目旨在研究微藻菌株对AMD环境的适应性反应，以了解(1)细胞内金属离子耐受和隔离的分子适应机制，(2)藻细胞内金属的亚细胞定位和化学形态特征的细节，以及(3)在小规模培养实验中利用微藻生物量去除污染水中金属的有效性。这一令人兴奋的项目成果将增强我们对耐金属极端微生物微藻的基础知识，并提供对环境胁迫适应和金属积累机制的新认识，从而可能在金属污染物清理和金属回收方面产生新的生物技术应用。该项目将研究选定微生物对金属和酸性胁迫反应的基本生化和细胞过程，这将提供对微生物生命过程的基本理解，同时也将允许评估可持续金属污染物生物修复实践的新生物技术应用。微生物在自然和污染系统中的功能是生态系统行为的基础。对金属污染胁迫下微藻过程的新深入了解将促进金属提取和加工行业新型生物修复选择的发展。该项目将增强对极端微生物的基础认识，并为环境胁迫适应机制提供新的认识。该项目将提供研究技能方面的培训，包括微藻生理学和生物化学、成像和光谱技术。

Project Description: (maximum of 4,000 characters)Please make sure this description clearly indicates how the project sits within the BBSRC remit, how it enables new ways of working and how it aligns with the DTP themes (World Class Underpinning Biosciences, Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy or Agriculture and Food Security). If you have been awarded an in vivo skills supplement, please outline the in vivo skills the student will learn during the project. The potential for using extremophile microalgae for biotechnology applications is significant but the characterisation and validation of these organisms for biotechnological use is lacking. This multi-disciplinary PhD project will address this gap in this important research topic. Strains of extremophile microalgae were identified from a mine environment that can tolerate very high acidity and very high concentrations of toxic metals. Studying these organisms will allow better understanding of the mechanisms of adaptation to extreme environments and provide details of potentially novel mechanisms of stress tolerance at the cellular and molecular level. There are also many applications and uses of these organisms to industrial biotechnology, such as pollutant bioremediation, metal recovery (metal bio-mining) and potentially also as a source of novel high-value chemicals. This project will aim to investigate the adaptive responses of the microalgae strains to AMD environments in order to understand (1) the molecular adaptation mechanisms to allow both tolerance and sequestration of the metal ions within the cell, (2) the details of subcellular localisation and chemical speciation characteristics of metals within the algal cell, and (3) the validation of using microalgal biomass for metal removal from contaminated waters in small-scale cultivation experiments. The outcomes from this exciting project will enhance our fundamental knowledge of metal-tolerant extremophile microalgae, and provide new understanding of environmental stress adaptation and metal accumulation mechanisms, which may in turn give rise to novel biotechnological applications for metal pollutant clean up and metal recycling. The project will study fundamental biochemical and cellular processes underlying the response to metal and acidity stress for selected microorganisms that will provide fundamental understanding of microbial life processes but also will allow evaluation of novel biotechnological applications for sustainable metal pollutant bioremediation practices. The functions of microorganisms in natural and polluted systems are fundamental to ecosystem behaviour. New depth of understanding of microalgal processes in response to metal pollution stress will improve development of novel bioremediation options for metal extraction and processing industries. The project will enhance fundamental knowledge of extremophile organisms, and provide new understanding of environmental stress adaptation mechanisms. The project will provide training in research skills including microalgal physiology and biochemistry, imaging and spectroscopy techniques.