CAREER: Genomic Networks for Cold-Adaptation in Embryos of Polar Marine Invertebrates

虽然冷海洋生态系统占地球生物圈体积的72%，但它们仍然人烟稀少，相对未开发，特别是在后生动物门方面。因此，能够在细胞内冻结的边界上生存的少数动物代表了探索环境适应的基因组水平过程的理想系统。了解生物圈边缘的生命可能会对在强烈的选择压力下生存所必需的基本基因组过程产生重大影响。基因组网络中的适应机制的这项研究集中在一个实验系统，面临着一个艰巨的挑战，在低水温的生存能力：胚胎发育在海水温度为-1.8摄氏度的两个南极棘皮动物，海星星Odontaster validus和海胆Sterechinus neumayeri。该项目的战略将量化温度对基因表达和蛋白质周转网络的影响，在早期发展过程中使用贝叶斯网络分析，以确定基因和蛋白质的表达水平在固定的，协同的相互作用相关联的集群。最终，有一个简单的问题需要解决：胚胎在极端环境中发育是更困难还是更简单？为了回答这个问题，该研究计划将破译网络拓扑结构和子网结构，以揭示与这种极地环境中胚胎发育相关的基因连接模式。这是环境基因组学的新领域，PI将通过将他的研究经验扩展到计算网络分析来探索。总的来说，在环境科学的未来发展中，特别是应用基因组规模的技术来回答生态规模的问题，对综合生物学家有着重要的需求。这个职业建议的教育目标集中在两个层次上，在发展中的环境基因组学领域的有趣的年轻学生：1）增加环境研究所吸引的科学家的种族多样性，和2）提高对环境研究中的就业机会的认识。这些教育目标被纳入研究计划，以吸引学生在环境研究中工作的兴奋。他们希望通过基因组水平的研究来揭示生物如何适应特定的栖息地。在南极洲这样的偏远、极端的环境中工作总是一个挑战。然而，这项工作的冒险性质可以用来建立本科生和公众高度感兴趣的教育和推广组件。拟议的计划将通过几种方式向更多的人介绍在南极洲工作的经验。其中包括：环境基因组学的项目主题将纳入特拉华州大学目前正在编制的新的生物信息学课程;将实施一个实习生方案，让少数民族本科生参加在美国进行的夏季研究，然后把学生带到南极洲参加研究;一个从幼儿园到12年级的教育项目将把在南极工作的兴奋带到成千上万儿童的教室里（美国和国际）通过一个与特拉华州大学海洋科学公共教育办公室合作的项目。

Although the cold ocean ecosystems comprise seventy-two percent of the biosphere on Earth by volume, they remain sparsely inhabited and relatively unexploited, particularly in terms of metazoan phyla. Consequently, the few animals that can exist at this border of intracellular freezing represent ideal systems for exploring genomic-level processes of environmental adaptations. Understanding life at a margin of the biosphere is likely to convey significant insights into the essential genomic processes necessary for survival under intense selection pressures. This study of adaptive mechanisms in genomic networks focuses on an experimental system that faces a formidable challenge for viability at low water temperatures: embryonic development at sea water temperatures of -1.8 o C in two Antarctic echinoderms, the sea star Odontaster validus and the sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri. The project strategy will quantify temperature effects on gene expression and protein turnover networks during early development using a Bayesian network analysis to identify clusters of genes and proteins whose expression levels are associated in fixed, synergistic interactions. Ultimately, there is a simple question to be addressed: Is it more or less difficult (complex) for an embryo to develop in an extreme environment? To answer this question, the research plan will decipher network topologies and subnet structuring to uncover gene connectivity patterns associated with embryo development in this polar environment. This is the new area of Environmental Genomics that the PI will explore by expanding his research experience into computational network analyses. Overall, there is a significant need for integrative biologists in the future development of environmental sciences, particularly for the application of genomic-scale technologies to answer ecological-scale questions. The educational goals of this CAREER proposal are focused at two levels in terms of interesting young students in the developing field of environmental genomics: 1) increasing the racial diversity of the scientists attracted to environmental research, and 2) increasing the awareness of career opportunities within environmental research.These educational objectives are incorporated into the research plan to engage students with the excitement of working in an extreme environment such as Antarctica and to interest them in the insights that genome-level research can reveal about how organisms are adapted to specific habitats. Working in a remote, extreme environment such as Antarctica is always a challenge. However, the adventurous nature of the work can be utilized to establish educational and outreach components of high interest to both undergraduate students and the public in general. The proposed plan will bring the experience of working in Antarctica to a larger audience through several means. These include the following: the project theme of environmental genomics will be incorporated into a new Bioinformatics curriculum currently being developed at the University of Delaware; an intern program will be implemented to involved minority undergraduate students in summer research in the United States and then to bring the students to Antarctica to participate in the research; and a K-12 education program will bring the excitement of working in Antarctica to the classrooms of thousands of children (U.S. and international) through a program produced with the Marine Science Public Education Office at the University of Delaware.