NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011

这一行动资助了NSF 2011财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，生物学与数学和物理科学的交叉点。该奖学金支持位于生物学和数学科学交叉点的研究员在东道主实验室进行的研究和培训计划。塔琳娜·科诺切克的这项研究和培训计划的标题是《海洋浮游植物群落的比较元译本》。该奖学金的主办机构是J·克雷格·文特尔研究所(JCVI)，赞助科学家安德鲁·艾伦博士和柴部·约瑟夫博士。海洋浮游植物群落占地球初级生产力的很大一部分。对于海洋中的这些重要生物，已经有了被称为偏转录组学的社区水平基因表达的大规模数据集。这项研究考察了几个真实世界真核海洋浮游植物群落的转录本，以了解定义在特定环境中生长的浮游植物的集体生理生化过程和进化关系。这项研究提高了我们预测浮游植物对海洋温度上升、pH变化和由于气候变化而引起的层结变化的适应能力的能力。环境基因组学领域的迅速发展和最近几个真核浮游植物基因组的出现增加了比较分析的能力，并提供了一个独特的机会来开发分析和建模工具，这些工具可能会延伸到这类生物体之外。培训目标包括建立数学和统计学背景，将生物动机的问题转化为可验证的假设。对涉及新陈代谢各个方面的基因的多样性、丰度和表达水平的物理数据进行数学建模，在描述海洋浮游植物分布的物理-生物学方面发挥着核心作用。更广泛的影响包括通过与JCVI教育部门一起开发K-12教育模块以及通过积极指导和培训本科生实习生来开展教育宣传，以鼓励下一代基因组研究人员。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2011, Intersections of Biology and Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow at the intersection of biology and mathematical science. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Talina Konotchick is "Comparative Metatranscriptomics of Marine Phytoplankton Communities." The host institution for this fellowship is the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) with sponsoring scientists Drs. Andrew Allen and Shibu Yooseph. Marine phytoplankton communities contribute a significant fraction of the primary productivity of the planet. Large-scale datasets of community-level gene expression, termed the metatranscriptome, have become available for these important organisms in the oceans. This research examines metatranscriptomes from several real-world eukaryotic marine phytoplankton communities to understand the collective physiological and biochemical processes and evolutionary relationships that define phytoplankton growing in a particular environment. The research advances our ability to predict phytoplankton response and resilience to increased ocean temperatures, shifts in pH, and changes in stratification due to changing climate. The rapidly growing field of environmental genomics and the recent availability of several eukaryotic phytoplankton genomes have increased capacity for comparative analyses and provide a unique opportunity to develop analytical and modeling tools that may extend beyond this group of organisms.Training objectives include establishing the mathematical and statistical background to translate biologically motivated questions into testable hypotheses. Mathematical modeling of physical data with the diversity, abundance, and expression level of genes involved in various aspects of metabolism plays a central role in characterizing the physical-biological aspects of marine phytoplankton distributions. Broader impacts include educational outreach to encourage the next generation of genomic researchers through the development of K-12 educational modules with the JCVI education department and through active mentoring and training of undergraduate interns.