Biosafety cabinet for marine fungal biodiversity and proteomics research

用于海洋真菌生物多样性和蛋白质组学研究的生物安全柜

• 批准号: RTI-2018-00643
• 负责人: Walker, Allison
• 金额: $ 1.09万
• 依托单位: Acadia University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=642184
• 关键词: Biosafety; cabinet; marine; fungal; biodiversity

Until we understand the spatiotemporal distribution of marine fungi and identify the most ecologically and biogeochemically relevant species, we cannot integrate fungi into our understanding of the microbial ecology of the oceans. I am elucidating the vital role that marine fungi play in northern coastal ecosystems, how the species interact with one another, and other coastal processes, and how their ecological role makes them particularly suited for bioremediation of oil spills. Oil pollution is a global problem that will pose increasing health risks to humans and food webs in marine ecosystems into the foreseeable future. Offshore hydrocarbon activity in coldwater marine areas is on the rise. Northern sea beds may hold one quarter of the world’s undiscovered oil deposits. Global demand for oil is increasing despite policy efforts to adopt more climate-friendly energy sources. Recent progress in technology, ship design, drilling gear and logistics have made northern waters more accessible for offshore hydrocarbon exploration. Oil spills threaten understudied northern coastal ecosystems. Hydrocarbon components of spilled fuels include carcinogens and neurotoxic organic pollutants. Offshore oil activity may have increasingly direct or indirect social and economic impacts for northern regions such as Atlantic Canada in the event of marine oil spills. I am applying for funding to purchase an essential piece of equipment for my new NSERC Discovery grant-funded research program (2017-2022), a Level A2 Biosafety Cabinet. My research program, unique worldwide, explores marine fungal biodiversity and oil remediation applications. Central to this, I need a dedicated Biosafety Cabinet to train my team to culture marine fungi from environmental samples. This equipment is not currently available at Acadia University. Without this cabinet, my research will be slowed significantly as it is crucial for building my cryopreserved collection of marine fungi which will be screened for their genomic and proteomic potential to degrade hydrocarbons. Culturing is the first step in DNA barcoding and phylogenetic placement of these fungi, many of which are new to science and will be described by my HQP. A biosafety cabinet prevents contamination of the fungal specimens from airborne spores, allowing us to obtain axenic cultures of single species. Biosafety cabinets also protect the user from unwanted inhalation of fungal spores. The requested equipment will support my research team and other groups at Acadia as well as research collaborations and HQP throughout the Atlantic Provinces examining the regional distribution and impacts of hydrocarbons on marine ecosystems. Proteomic screening of selected isolates for p450 cytochrome molecules will be done in the lab of my collaborator Dr. Erin Bertrand (CRC Marine Microbial Proteomics, Dalhousie).

在我们了解海洋真菌的时空分布并确定生态和生物地球化学最相关的物种之前，我们无法将真菌纳入我们对海洋微生物生态学的理解。我正在阐明海洋真菌在北方沿海生态系统中发挥的重要作用，这些物种如何相互作用，以及其他沿海过程，以及它们的生态作用如何使它们特别适合于石油泄漏的生物修复。石油污染是一个全球性问题，在可预见的未来将对人类和海洋生态系统中的食物网构成越来越大的健康风险。冷水海洋地区的近海碳氢化合物活动正在增加。北方海床可能蕴藏着世界上四分之一未被发现的石油储量。尽管政策努力采用更气候友好的能源，但全球对石油的需求仍在增加。技术、船舶设计、钻井设备和后勤方面的最新进展使北方沃茨更容易进行近海油气勘探。石油泄漏威胁着未得到充分研究的北方沿海生态系统。泄漏燃料的碳氢化合物成分包括致癌物和神经毒性有机污染物。近海石油活动在发生海上溢油时，可能对加拿大大西洋沿岸等北方地区产生越来越多的直接或间接社会和经济影响。我正在申请资金，为我新的NSERC发现资助的研究计划（2017-2022）购买一件必不可少的设备，一个A2级生物安全柜。我的研究计划，全球独一无二，探索海洋真菌生物多样性和石油修复应用。为此，我需要一个专门的生物安全柜来训练我的团队从环境样本中培养海洋真菌。这一设备目前还没有在哥伦比亚大学提供。如果没有这个柜子，我的研究将大大放缓，因为它对建立我的海洋真菌冷冻保存库至关重要，这些真菌将被筛选其降解碳氢化合物的基因组和蛋白质组潜力。培养是这些真菌的DNA条形码和系统发育位置的第一步，其中许多是新的科学，将由我的HQP描述。 生物安全柜防止空气中孢子对真菌标本的污染，使我们能够获得单一物种的纯培养物。生物安全柜还保护用户免受不必要的真菌孢子吸入。所要求的设备将支持我的研究小组和其他小组在哥伦比亚，以及研究合作和HQP在整个大西洋省份检查区域分布和碳氢化合物对海洋生态系统的影响。在我的合作者Erin Bertrand博士（CRC海洋微生物蛋白质组学，达尔豪西）的实验室中，将对选定的分离株进行p450细胞色素分子的蛋白质组学筛选。