Biosafety cabinet for marine fungal biodiversity and proteomics research

除非我们了解海洋真菌的时空分布，并确定最具生态和生物地球化学相关性的物种，否则我们无法将真菌纳入我们对海洋微生物生态的理解中。我正在阐明海洋真菌在北部沿海生态系统中扮演的重要角色，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。冷水海域的近海油气活动正在上升。北方海床可能拥有世界上未探明石油储量的四分之一。尽管政策努力采用更多气候友好型能源，但全球对石油的需求仍在增加。最近在技术、船舶设计、钻井设备和物流方面的进步使北部水域更容易进行近海油气勘探。石油泄漏威胁到了未被充分研究的北部沿海生态系统。泄漏燃料的碳氢化合物成分包括致癌物质和具有神经毒性的有机污染物。如果发生海上石油泄漏，近海石油活动可能会对加拿大大西洋等北部地区产生越来越直接或间接的社会和经济影响。我正在申请资金，为我的新的NSERC发现拨款资助的研究计划(2017-2022年)购买一件必要的设备，一个A2级生物安全内阁。我的研究项目在全球范围内独一无二，探索海洋真菌生物多样性和石油修复应用。最重要的是，我需要一个专门的生物安全内阁来培训我的团队从环境样本中培养海洋真菌。阿卡迪亚大学目前还没有这种设备。如果没有这个柜子，我的研究将显著减慢，因为它对于建立我的冷冻保存的海洋真菌集合至关重要，这些海洋真菌将对其基因组和蛋白质组降解碳氢化合物的潜力进行筛选。培养是这些真菌DNA条形码和系统发育定位的第一步，其中许多对科学来说是新的，将在我的HQP中描述。生物安全柜防止空气传播的孢子污染真菌标本，使我们能够获得单一物种的无菌培养。生物安全柜还可以保护使用者免受不必要的真菌孢子的吸入。所要求的设备将支持我的研究小组和阿卡迪亚的其他小组，以及大西洋各省的研究协作和总部基地，以审查碳氢化合物的区域分布和对海洋生态系统的影响。我的合作者Erin Bertrand博士(CRC海洋微生物蛋白质组学，Dalhousie)的实验室将对选定的分离株进行P450细胞色素分子的蛋白质组筛选。

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).