Microbiomes of Charophycean Algae: Revealing the Early Evolution of Land Plant Microbial Associations

像人类和其他动物一样，现代植物依赖于它们的微生物群落，并与之相互作用。微生物群落是为宿主提供营养益处的伙伴微生物群落。分子和化石证据表明，共生微生物对最早的植物在陆地上定居的能力至关重要，从而形成了过去数亿年来一直存在的复杂陆地生态系统的基础。然而，我们对早期植物-微生物伙伴关系是如何产生的了解很少，因为密切相关的绿藻的微生物协会知之甚少。过去对这些亲缘关系的研究揭示了人类所依赖的现代植物的许多分子、生化、生理、结构和生殖特征的起源。该项目使用最先进的基因组测序和计算机数据处理方法来推断微生物的多样性和在关键的藻类-微生物和植物-微生物伙伴关系中的功能。这些数据有望揭示现代植物-微生物伙伴关系的基本特征。该项目将扩展自然生态系统中微生物多样性和功能的知识，并阐明植物进化史。许多对科学界有用的新基因序列和潜在有用的新微生物物种有望被发现。该项目与各种教育活动相联系，特别是为公众、学生和研究人员设计的新网络资源的开发。

Like humans and other animals, modern plants depend on and interact with their microbiomes - communities of partner microorganisms that provide nutritional benefits to their hosts. Molecular and fossil evidence indicate that symbiotic microbes were critical to the ability of earliest plants to colonize land, thereby forming the basis for complex terrestrial ecosystems that have existed for the past several hundred million years. Yet our understanding of how early plant-microbe partnerships arose is sparse because the microbial associations of closely-related green algae are poorly known. Past study of such relatives has revealed the origin of many molecular, biochemical, physiological, structural, and reproductive features of the modern plants upon which humans depend. This project uses state-of-the-art genomic sequencing and computer data processing methods to infer microbial diversity and function in key algal-microbe and plant-microbe partnerships. These data are expected to reveal fundamental features of modern plant-microbe partnerships.This project will extend knowledge of microbial diversity and function in natural ecosystems and illuminate plant evolutionary history. Many new gene sequences useful to the scientific community and new microbial species of potential utility are expected to be discovered. The project links to diverse educational activities, particularly the development of a new web resource designed for the general public, students, and researchers.