NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2010

这一行动为2010财年美国国家科学基金会博士后研究奖学金提供资金。该奖学金支持卡梅隆·斯特拉什的一项研究和培训计划，该计划名为《了解世界上最具优势的海洋细菌的遗传多样性》。这项研究的主办机构是俄勒冈州立大学，赞助科学家是斯蒂芬·乔瓦诺尼。SAR11是一个缩写，用来描述一种全球重要的细菌，占世界海洋细菌细胞的25%-50%，因此预计将对全球生物地球化学循环产生重大影响。SAR11的变异体在海洋环境中的特定时间和地点被发现，被称为生态型。SAR11生态型在其遗传含量上有明显的变异，但这种变异如何定义观察到的生态型尚不清楚。这项拟议的研究旨在通过观察不同SAR11生物的多个基因组之间的异同来了解这些不同SAR11生态型的遗传基础。通过确定这些生物体的基因，可以确定特定的基因是否对观察到的不同生态型的表型差异负责，以及与生态型之间相比，生态型内的基因重组是否以不同的速度发生。了解这些不同生态型的遗传基础将有助于更好地理解这些生物体如何与其环境(例如，特定生态型可能需要什么营养物质)以及彼此之间(例如，为什么一种生态型在特定地区支配其他生态型)相互作用，从而加强关于SAR11生物体的生态学理论。这项研究的更广泛的动机是，了解海洋微生物的基本生态学，可以更准确地模拟世界海洋中碳的生物地球化学循环。这对于预测气候变化的影响和为有关全球经济以及资源分配和使用的政策提供信息至关重要。该研究金的培训目标包括精通计算生物学和比较基因组学，以补充研究员在微生物生理学方面的专门知识，最终目标是通过基因组学和生理学相结合的方法研究微生物对海洋生物地球化学的贡献。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2010. The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled "Understanding the genetic variety of the world's most dominant marine bacterium" for Cameron Thrash. The host institution for this research is the Oregon State University, and the sponsoring scientist is Stephen Giovannoni. SAR11 is the abbreviation used to describe a type of globally important bacteria constituting 25-50% of the bacterial cells in the world's oceans and is therefore expected to have significant impact on global biogeochemical cycling. Variants of SAR11 are found at specific times and places in marine environments and are referred to as ecotypes. SAR11 ecotypes have observable variation in their genetic content but it is unknown how this variation defines the observed ecotypes. The proposed research aims to understand the genetic basis for these different SAR11 ecotypes by looking at the similarities and differences between multiple genomes of different SAR11 organisms. By determining the genes of these organisms, it is possible to determine if specific genes are responsible for the phenotypic differences observed for distinct ecotypes, and if genetic recombination is occurring at different rates within an ecotype compared to between ecotypes. Knowledge of the genetic basis for these different ecotypes will lead to a better understanding of how these organisms interact both with their environment (e.g., what nutrients may be required for a given ecotype) and with each other (e.g., why one ecotype dominates others in a specific place), and thus strengthen ecological theory regarding SAR11 organisms. Broader motivation for this research is that understanding the basic ecology of marine microorganisms allows more accurate modeling of biogeochemical cycling of carbon in the world's oceans. This is of critical importance for anticipating the effects of climate change and informing policy regarding the global economy and resource allocation and use. Training objectives of this fellowship include achieving proficiency in computational biology and comparative genomics to compliment the Fellow's expertise in microbial physiology, with the ultimate goal being study of microbial contributions to marine biogeochemistry through a combined genomics and physiology approach.