Biological Diversity: Generation, Control and Exploitation

生物多样性：产生、控制和利用

• 批准号: 7683020
• 负责人: Andrew W Murray
• 金额: $ 314.41万
• 依托单位: HARVARD UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-09-08 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7683020
• 关键词: Biological; Diversity; Generation; Control; Exploitation

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal focuses on the generation, control, and exploitation of diversity in biology. Genetic diversity drives the evolution of organisms, hinders cures of cystic fibrosis, AIDS and cancer, plays a crucial role in bacterial and fungal infections, and accounts for individual differences in susceptibility to disease agents and the responses to drugs. Non-genetic diversity allows different cells to respond differently to the same environment, differences that can increase the infectivity of pathogens and their resistance to antibiotics. This team will use experiment and theory to study the origin and consequences of biological diversity over scales of size and time that range from the folding of individual proteins to the formation of new species. The goals of the research are: 1) Generating diversity: We will define the rate at which organisms generate diversity. We will determine the distribution of beneficial and deleterious mutations and assess the role of specialized forms of mutation. We will determine the maximum accuracy of regulatory circuits. 2) Controlling diversity: We will study how organisms control the effect of noise. The numbers of copies of any molecule in a cell fluctuates stochastically and cells must deal with errors that produce damaged molecules. We will investigate how evolution and engineering can minimize the effects of noise in processes as diverse as protein folding, gene expression, and circadian clocks. 3) Responding to environmental diversity: Organisms must optimize their response to temporally and spatially variable environments. We will investigate the ability of existing pathways to detect fluctuating environments and examine how organisms evolve to respond to them, 4) Exploiting diversity: We will investigate how selection acts on genetic diversity to produce new phenotypes. We will ask how selection produces a range of biological phenomena, including altered patterns of gene expression, alterations in the host range and social behavior of pathogens, new species, and stable community structures in ecosystems. The core of the proposal is the group of Bauer fellows, young interdisciplinary scientists who come from a variety of backgrounds and interact to form a single collaborative community that nucleates interactions amongst a wide range of research groups.

描述（由申请人提供）：该提案着重于生物学多样性的产生，控制和剥削。遗传多样性驱动了生物体的演变，阻碍囊性纤维化，艾滋病和癌症的治疗方法，在细菌和真菌感染中起着至关重要的作用，并说明了对疾病药物易感性的个体差异以及对药物的反应。非遗传多样性允许不同的细胞对相同环境的反应不同，差异可以增加病原体的感染性及其对抗生素的抗性。该团队将使用实验和理论来研究生物多样性在大小和时间的起源和后果，范围从单个蛋白质的折叠到新物种的形成。研究的目标是：1）产生多样性：我们将定义生物产生多样性的速度。我们将确定有益和有害突变的分布，并评估特殊形式突变的作用。我们将确定监管电路的最大准确性。 2）控制多样性：我们将研究生物如何控制噪声的影响。细胞中任何分子的副本数量随机波动，细胞必须处理产生损坏分子的误差。我们将研究如何将噪声在蛋白质折叠，基因表达和昼夜节律时钟等多样化的过程中最小化。 3）对环境多样性的反应：生物必须优化其对时间和空间可变环境的反应。我们将研究现有途径检测波动环境的能力并研究生物如何发展以对它们的反应，4）利用多样性：我们将研究选择如何对遗传多样性产生新表型的作用。我们将询问选择如何产生一系列生物学现象，包括基因表达的改变，宿主范围的改变以及病原体，新物种和生态系统中稳定的社区结构的社会行为。该提案的核心是鲍尔研究员组，年轻的跨学科科学家来自各种背景，并互动以形成一个单一的协作社区，该社区对广泛的研究小组之间的相互作用有核。