Functional genomics of phosphate acquisition during virus infection of Emiliania huxleyi.

在病毒感染期间获取磷酸盐的功能基因组学埃米利亚尼亚赫克斯莱伊是一种微小的海洋藻类，它自由地漂浮在海洋中，使自己成为被称为尾藻的鳞片上的白垩质外壳。当条件合适时，这种微小的藻类可以大量生长(一茶匙海水中最多可生长10,000个)，形成我们所知的“水华”。不同寻常的是，这些水华的最佳条件是当主要营养物质(磷)的浓度较低时。最近分离出了一种巨大的病毒，它是导致这些藻类死亡的原因。病毒在感染过程中对磷的需求很高，因此这组巨型病毒肯定进化出了一种感染这种全球重要藻类的新机制。有趣的是，当病毒的基因组序列被破译时，它揭示了一个已知与磷获取有关的基因。这项研究的主要目的是确定该基因的功能以及哪些细胞和环境因素调节其运行，以期了解磷获取基因是否对成功的病毒感染是必不可少的。微阵列技术和单个感染细胞的基因组分析将被用来同时研究病毒中所有基因的调节(全球表达分析)。最终，这将有助于破译巨藻病毒基因如何在营养胁迫下协同工作，实现成功的感染。赫克斯莱伊形成了大规模的水华，它们在碳固存甚至气候调节方面发挥着极其重要的作用。这份提案中概述的所有方法都将用于开发一个新的病毒生态学研讨会，该研讨会最终将成为毕格罗针对高年级本科生和研究生的暑期课程计划的一部分。初中生和高中生观众将通过毕格罗的“环游食物网”网站学习与病毒相关的研究。

Functional genomics of phosphate acquisition during virus infection of Emiliania huxleyi.Emiliania huxleyi is a tiny marine alga that floats freely in the ocean and makes itself a chalky outer shell from scales known as coccoliths. When conditions are right this tiny alga can grow in huge numbers (up to 10,000 in a teaspoonful of seawater) to form what is known as a 'bloom'. Unusually, the best conditions for these blooms are when concentrations of a major nutrient (phosphorus) are low. A giant virus was recently isolated that is responsible for the death of these algae. Viruses have a high phosphorus demand during infection so this group of giant viruses must have evolved a novel mechanism for infection of this globally important alga. Intriguingly, when the genome sequence of the virus was decoded, it revealed a gene known to be involved in phosphorus acquisition. The main goals of this research are to determine the function of this gene and what cellular and environmental factors regulate its operation with a view to asking if phosphorus acquisition genes are essential for a successful virus infection. Microarray technology and analysis of genomes of single infected cells will be used to investigate regulation of all genes in the virus at the same time (global expression analysis). Ultimately, this will help decipher how giant algal virus genes work together to achieve a successful infection under nutrient stress. E. huxleyi form massive blooms and they play extremely important roles in carbon sequestration and even climate regulation. All the methods outlined in this proposal will be used in the development of a new workshop in virus ecology that will eventually become part of the Bigelow summer course program aimed at senior undergraduate and graduate students. Middle school and high school audiences will be taught virus-related research through the "Cycling through the Food Web" website at Bigelow.