BE/GENEN Coral Reef Genomics: A Genome Wide Approach to the Study of Cnidarian Symbiosis

共生相互作用在各种各样的动植物群落中是常见和重要的。在更复杂的共生中，底栖海洋无脊椎动物，特别是线虫，与光合作用的甲藻(虫黄藻)之间的共生关系。这种类型的共生在一个重要的海洋生态系统--珊瑚礁的形成中发挥了关键作用。关于建立和维持这些共同的生物关系的分子基础，人们知之甚少。珊瑚与其虫黄藻之间的共生关系很容易受到环境因素变化的影响，如海水温度升高和/或光照水平升高。全球变暖通过破坏这些共生体(珊瑚漂白)影响了世界各地的珊瑚礁，导致许多珊瑚随后死亡。现在迫切需要更好地了解分子和细胞相互作用，这些相互作用对这些共生体的功能完整性至关重要。PIS组建了一支珊瑚礁生物学家团队(Coffroth，Szmant)，他们在研究海洋生态系统中的共生关系方面拥有长期的实地经验，基因组科学家(Medina，Manohar，Nelson，Terry)在高通量基因组技术和此类方法产生的数据分析方面拥有广泛的专业知识，以及通过博物馆/水族馆的教育项目对公众宣传具有高度影响力的教育专家(唐)。PIs的团队中有几名少数族裔成员，包括六名女性(Coffroth，Manohar，Medina，Szmant，Tang和Terry)，两名西班牙裔(Medina，Szmant)和两名亚裔美国人(Manohar，Tang)。PI正在使用从表达序列标签(EST)数据开发的微阵列表达谱来识别在加勒比海热带珊瑚礁地区Montastraea aveolata互利共生系统中涉及的基因和细胞路径。他们正在进行基因操作实验，以确定这些基因的功能。当伴随着含有它们的细菌人工染色体(BAC)克隆的测序时，这种方法将有助于理解这些基因在宿主和共生体中是如何调控的。这项研究是首次尝试使用全基因组的基因表达分析来观察一种非常重要的互惠关系。PIS正在通过几个推广计划提供该项目产生的所有资源(EST、微阵列、cDNA库和BAC文库)。更好地了解珊瑚礁生态系统中宿主-共生体的关系可以对大气和海洋科学、保护生物学以及珊瑚微生物疾病的研究和诊断产生影响。因此，这个项目将引起更广泛的科学界的极大兴趣。

Symbiotic interactions are common and important in a wide variety of plant and animal communities. Among the more complex symbioses is the mutualism between benthic marine invertebrates, especially cnidarians, and photosynthetic dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae). This type of symbiosis has had a key role in the formation of an important marine ecosystem, the coral reef. Little is known about the molecular basis for the establishment and maintenance of these common biological relationships. The symbiosis between scleractinian corals and their zooxanthellae is highly susceptible to changes in environmental factors such as elevated seawater temperature and/or elevated light levels. Global warming has impacted coral reefs world wide by causing the disruption of these symbioses (coral bleaching), causing many corals to subsequently die. It is now urgent to gain a better understanding of the molecular and cellular interactions that are critical to the functional integrity of these symbioses. The PIs have assembled a team of coral reef biologists (Coffroth, Szmant) with a long record of field experience in studying symbiotic relationships in marine ecosystems, genome scientists (Medina, Manohar, Nelson, Terry) with wide-ranging expertise in high throughput genomic techniques and analysis of data generated by such methods, and educational experts (Tang) with high impact capabilities for public outreach through the educational programs in a museum/aquarium setting. The PIs have several members on the team who are part of minority groups, including six women (Coffroth, Manohar, Medina, Szmant, Tang, and Terry), two Hispanic (Medina, Szmant), and two Asian-Americans (Manohar, Tang).The PIs are using microarray expression profiling developed from expressed sequence tags (EST) data to identify genes and cellular pathways involved in the host-zooxanthellae symbiosis in the Montastraea faveolata mutualistic system from Caribbean tropical reef areas. They are performing gene manipulation experiments to establish function of these genes. When accompanied by sequencing of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones containing them, this approach will contribute to understanding how these genes are regulated in both the host and the symbiont. The research is the first attempt to look at a very important mutualistic relationship using a genome wide analysis of gene expression. The PIs are making all the resources generated by this project (ESTs, microarrays, cDNA and BAC libraries) available through several outreach programs. Gaining a better understanding of host-symbiont relationships in coral reef ecosystems can have implications for atmospheric and ocean sciences, conservation biology and the study and diagnosis of microbial diseases in corals. Consequently, this project will be of great interest to a broader scientific community.