En-Gen: Ecological Genomics of Soil Nematode Community Responses: Model and Non-Model Approaches

生物体的自然环境不断变化，提出了许多挑战，需要短期的生态和长期的进化反应。然而，这些反应的复杂性使得很难发现相关的基因。生态基因组学的新兴领域结合了基因组分析的最新技术进展与生态学方法，以了解生物体对其自然环境的反应背后的遗传机制。在这里，居民土壤线虫种群采样从康扎草原生物站，曼哈顿，堪萨斯附近，被用来连接生物体的反应，在遗传水平上的环境变化。具体而言，实验室测试用于确定哪些基因影响适应性在变化的环境中，并用于开发功能基因阵列，以确定哪些基因表达线虫，因为他们在现场的环境线索。线虫是土壤中数量最多的无脊椎动物之一，对环境条件的变化反应迅速，是评估环境变化对土壤群落潜在影响的理想生物。该项目更广泛的影响将是了解对环境变化的生态反应背后的遗传机制，这将提供以前不可能的预测价值。其他更广泛的影响包括研究生和本科生的跨学科培训，以及与两个堪萨斯州立大学的本科研究项目，特别是涉及代表性不足的群体，以促进科学的多样性的成员合作。

The changing natural environments of organisms present many challenges that require both short-term ecological and long-term evolutionary responses. However, the complexity of these responses has made it difficult to discover the genes involved. The emerging field of Ecological Genomics combines the recent technical advances in genome analysis with ecological approaches to understand genetic mechanisms underlying the responses of organisms to their natural environment. Here, resident soil nematode populations sampled from the Konza Prairie Biological Station, near Manhattan, Kansas, are used to link the responses of organisms to environmental change at the genetic level. Specifically, laboratory tests are used to determine which genes affect fitness in the changed environment and are used to develop a functional gene array to determine which genes are expressed by nematodes as they respond to environmental cues in the field. As nematodes are among the most abundant invertebrates in soils and respond quickly to changing environmental conditions, they are ideal organisms to assess the potential impacts of environmental change on soil communities. A broader impact of the project will be gaining an understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying ecological responses to environmental changes that will provide a predictive value previously not possible. Other broader impacts include interdisciplinary training of graduate and undergraduate students as well as partnering with two Kansas State University undergraduate research programs that specifically involve members of underrepresented groups to promote diversity in science.