IDBR - An Auto-sampler for Aquatic Microbial Sampling and Archiving

水生科学的未来将建立在使用自主平台和传感器网络来实时或近实时积累观测数据的基础上。尽管能够进行快速物理和化学测量的平台是坚固耐用的，并且可以在商业上获得，但能够进行哪怕是适度的生物测量的自主传感器的设计、制造和部署还处于初级阶段。虽然许多基于分子分析的生物传感器已经在现场部署，但这些系统本身就很复杂，生产和运行成本很高，而且它们可以进行的分析数量有限。此外，这些系统在系统设置、部署和检索方面有复杂的操作程序，因此在其目前的开发阶段广泛采用它们的可能性很小。为了解决这些现有的局限性，正在开发一种小型自主就地取样和存档设备。样品过滤和存档(SAFA)系统可以部署在水生环境中，在那里它将自动收集和过滤20-30个用户定义的带有时间戳的200-500毫升之间的水样。保存捕获的生物材料中的遗传物质是通过随后添加稳定的缓冲液来执行的，使其在取回时可用于实验室使用一系列分子生物技术进行下游询问。因此，SAFA仪器将能够以高时间分辨率自主收集和存档样品，以供随后的实验室分析。SAFA还将允许在现场执行更多的采样制度，而不需要在现场部署人员，特别是在危险或不方便的采样期，从而提高当前微生物生态学研究的分辨率和范围。这一多学科项目将帮助培训和支持UPRM的一名硕士研究生。该项目还将支持2名暑期工程本科生，他们将开发电气子系统并将仪器打包。我们还将在波多黎各和威斯康星州开发K-12外部推广计划，解决分子生物学和现场仪器应用问题。在PIS进行效用研究之后，隶属于全球湖泊生态观测网络(GLEON)倡议的微生物生态学家将可以使用SAFA的原型版本进行评估。为了能够广泛地融入水产科学，该仪器将是？开源的？因为与SAFA系统的建设和运作有关的所有信息都可通过网站下载。

The future of aquatic sciences will be grounded in the use of autonomous platforms and sensor networks to accumulate observations in real-time or near real-time. Although platforms capable of making rapid physical and chemical measurements are robust and commercially available, the design, fabrication, and deployment of autonomous sensors capable of making even modest biological measurements are in their infancy. While a number of biological sensors based on molecular analysis have been field deployed, these systems are inherently complex and have high production and running costs, and are limited in the number of assays they can perform. Additionally, these systems have complex operational procedures for system set up, deployment, and retrieval, and as such there is a low likelihood that in their current stage of development they will be broadly adopted. To address these existing limitations, a small autonomous in situ sampling and archival device is being developed. The Sample Filtration and Archiving (SaFA) system can be deployed in the aquatic environment where it will automatically collect and filter between 20-30 user defined time-stamped water samples of between 200-500 ml. Preservation of the genetic material in the captured biological material is performed by the subsequent addition of a stabilization buffer, making it available for downstream interrogation in the laboratory using a range of molecular biological techniques upon retrieval. The SaFA instrument will therefore enable autonomous sample collection and archiving at high temporal resolution, for subsequent laboratory analysis. The SaFA will also allow increased sampling regimes to be performed in situ without the need for personnel to be deployed in the field, particularly during dangerous or inconvenient sampling periods, thereby increasing the resolution and scope of current microbial ecology studies. This multidisciplinary project will assist in the training and support of a masters student at UPRM. The project will also support 2 summer engineering undergraduate students who will develop the electrical subsystems and package the instrument. We will also develop K-12 external outreach programs in both Puerto Rico and Wisconsin that address molecular biology and in situ instrumentation applications. Following utility studies by the PIs, microbial ecologists affiliated of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) initiative, will have access to the prototype versions of the SaFA for evaluation purposes. To enable broad integration into the aquatic sciences the instrument will be ?open source? as all information relating to the construction and operation of the SaFA system will be download-able via a web site.