PFI: Transforming Environmental and Physiological Assessments Using Fish Erythrocyte Gene Expression to Measure Responses

该创新伙伴关系（PFI）项目是爱达荷大学(NSF PFI毕业生（0090635）和爱达荷州立大学（PFI计划的新机构）之间的III型（a:C）伙伴关系（定义为从未成为PFI受助者的机构），旨在解决缺乏现代技术和协议的问题，通过开发，验证和校准一种新的和潜在的转型产品来评估鱼类的生理健康：鱼类红细胞测定系统（EASY-F）。该分析系统将利用鱼类红细胞有核的事实，因此具有完整的基因组，以响应环境条件和实验操作。对鱼类生理健康的评估需要能够提供快速评估和预测信息的敏感、准确的工具。鱼类在人类社会中扮演着至关重要的多重角色；它们被认为是美国水生环境的重要组成部分；它们被认为是评估水生生态系统健康的生物标志物，它们对美国的体育和娱乐产业很重要。将鱼类在环境和人类社会中的各种角色联系在一起的是，它们都依赖于健康鱼类的生产，无论是在自然界还是在农场和孵化场。EASY-F定量聚合酶链反应（QPCR）迷你阵列的测试和开发将直接影响美洲原住民对鲑鱼的兴趣。部落是鲑鱼渔业的共同管理者，每个部落都有自己的渔业部门。与部落利益相关者的成功伙伴关系始于研究合作、技术共享和数据交换。EASY-F系统的开发和验证将在很大程度上依赖于部落利益相关者的直接合作。反过来，EASY-F技术的使用和商业化将直接影响部落利益，因为它提供了培训部落渔业科学家的额外机会，提高了部落渔业部门的技术专门知识水平，并改善了对渔业共同管理至关重要的利益攸关方之间的信息交流。最终，本项目转让的技术有可能影响受疾病或其他环境压力因素影响的鱼类种群、正在恢复的种群以及为提高生产力而加强的圈养种群的管理。项目启动时的合作伙伴是：学术机构：爱达荷大学（莫斯科和哈格曼，爱达荷州）（牵头机构）、爱达荷州立大学（波卡特洛，爱达荷州）和智利大学（智利圣地亚哥）；私营部门组织：库克水产养殖公司（加拿大新不伦瑞克布莱克港）、波特纽夫地区医疗中心（波卡特洛，爱达荷州）；联邦政府机构：农业部农业研究局；美国鱼类和野生动物管理局（波兹曼鱼类技术中心，波兹曼，MT），内政部；和美洲原住民组织：哥伦比亚河部落间鱼类委员会（波特兰，俄勒冈州）。

This Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) project is a Type III (A:C) partnership between University of Idaho, an NSF PFI graduate (0090635), and Idaho State University, an institution new to the PFI Program (defined as one that has never been a PFI grantee) seeks to address the lack of modern techniques and protocols to assess physiological health of fish by development, validation, and calibration of a novel and potentially transformational product: the erythrocyte assay system for fish (EASY-F). This assay system will capitalize on the fact that fish erythrocytes are nucleated and thus have a complete genome to respond to environmental conditions and experimental manipulations. Assessment of the physiological health of fish requires sensitive, accurate tools that can provide rapid assessments and predictive information.Fish play crucial and multiple roles in human society; they are valued as essential components of the aquatic environment in the U.S.; they are considered biomarkers to assess the health of aquatic ecosystems, and they are important to the sport and recreation industry in the U.S. What unites the various roles of fish in the environment and human society is that they all depend on production of healthy fish, both in nature and in farms and hatcheries. Testing and development of the proposed EASY-F quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) mini array will have an impact on Native American interests in salmonids directly. Tribal Groups are co-managers of salmonid fisheries and each tribe operates its own fisheries department. Successful partnership with tribal stakeholders begins with research collaboration, technology sharing, and data exchange. Development and validations of the EASY-F system will rely in large part on the direct collaboration of tribal stakeholders. In turn, the use and commercialization of the EASY-F technology will directly affect tribal interests by providing additional opportunities to train tribal fisheries scientists, raise the level of technological expertise in tribal fisheries departments, and improve information exchange among stakeholders crucial to the co-management of the fisheries. Ultimately, technology transferred from this project has the potential to influence the management of fish populations affected by disease or other environmental stressors, populations under restoration, and captive populations being enhanced to increase productivity.Partners at the inception of the project are: Academic Institutions: University of Idaho (Moscow and Hagerman, ID) (lead institution), Idaho State University (Pocatello, ID), and University of Chile (Santiago de Chile; Private Sector Organizations: Cooke Aquaculture Inc. (Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada), Portneuf Regional Medical Center (Pocatello, Idaho); Federal Government Organizations: Agriculture Research Service, Department of Agriculture; and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Bozeman Fish Technology Center, Bozeman, MT), Department of Interior; and Native American Organization: Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (Portland, OR)..