Microbial Genome Sequencing: Life at the Land/Ocean Margin: Genomic Analysis of a Coastal Cyanobacterium

加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校斯克里普斯海洋学研究所的Brian Palenik博士与基因组研究所的Ian Paulsen博士合作获得了一笔赠款，用于对沿海海洋蓝细菌Synechococcus sp.菌株CC9311的完整基因组进行测序和分析。这种光合微生物代表了一个广泛的，生态相关的群体，大大有助于沿海环境的初级生产力。研究人员假设，这种蓝细菌和一般的沿海细菌，与开放的海洋海洋环境相比，具有生活在沿海的特征策略。例如，这些细菌可能具有不同或更多的蛋白泵，用于排泄污染物或有毒金属，因为这些化合物在沿海环境中的水平较高。利用CC9311的基因组序列并将其与已知的开放海洋蓝藻基因组序列进行比较，将有助于揭示这些策略，本研究的信息将可用于未来开发用于监测沿海环境中蓝藻种群及其生理状态的工具。如果有基因组信息可用于开发监测技术，就有可能确定这些微生物是否受到特定沿海地点污染物的影响。因此，该项目将有助于监测沿海水质的更大的社会目标。该项目还与NSF微生物观测站计划资助的沿海海洋项目协同。该项目的一个更广泛的影响是，将基因组学的基本概念、其在海洋科学中的应用以及这项研究的结果以在桦树水族馆举办展览的形式向公众传播，桦树水族馆是加州圣地亚哥的一个重要旅游景点和一个重要的科学教育机构。还将在新兴的生物信息学领域培训未来的科学家（一名研究生和一名博士后）。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Brian Palenik of the University of California-San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in collaboration with Dr. Ian Paulsen, The Institute for Genomic Research, to sequence and analyze the complete genome of a coastal marine cyanobacterium, Synechococcus sp. strain CC9311. This photosynthetic microorganism represents a widespread, ecologically relevant group that greatly contributes to the primary productivity of coastal environments. The investigators have hypothesized that this cyanobacterium, and coastal bacteria in general, have characteristic strategies for living in coastal, compared to open ocean, marine environments. For example these bacteria may have different or more protein pumps for excreting pollutants or toxic metals due to the higher level of these compounds in coastal environments. Using the genome sequence of CC9311 and comparing it to available genome sequences of open ocean cyanobacteria will help reveal these strategies.The information from this research will be available for future use to develop tools for monitoring cyanobacterial populations and their physiological status in coastal environments. Whether or not these microorganisms are being affected by pollutants at a particular coastal site can potentially be determined if genome information is available to develop monitoring techniques. Thus this project will contribute to the larger societal goal of monitoring coastal water quality. This project is also synergistic with costal marine projects funded by the NSF Microbial Observatories program. A broader impact of this project will be to communicate the basic concepts of genomics, their application to marine science, and the results of this research to the general public in the form of an exhibit at the Birch Aquarium, a significant tourist attraction and an important institution for science education in San Diego California. Training of future scientists (one graduate student and one post-doctoral fellow) will also occur in the emerging field of bioinformatics.