DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Ecological Role of Fluorescence in a Reef-building Coral

造礁珊瑚在全球范围内正在减少，这主要是由于人类对其栖息地的负面影响。由于我们缺乏对其基本生物学过程的了解，包括特定基因的功能，减少这类在经济和生态上至关重要的生物体的损失的努力受到了阻碍。在典型的模式生物中，如果蝇或老鼠，通过研究其人工沉默的后果来测试基因的功能，这一过程被称为“敲除”。作者建议开发敲除方法来研究珊瑚基因的功能，从编码荧光蛋白的基因开始。这些蛋白质是基因活性的天然可见标记，使得确认它们被敲除的效率变得直接。此外，作者计划验证一个假设，即这些蛋白质在促进幼虫扩散方面发挥着特定的作用，这一特征可能会使珊瑚种群在受到干扰后迅速恢复。PIs还将致力于向来自代表性不足群体的高中生教授珊瑚生物学，并参与其他社区外展活动。特定的基因敲除是一项尚未在珊瑚中遇到的技术挑战。该项目将测试几种替代的基因沉默方法，并评估这些程序对荧光蛋白数量的直接影响以及它们对与幼虫扩散相关的生理参数的影响。除了解决本论文中的这一具体改进外，珊瑚基因敲除方法的可用性将为深入分析动物发育、适应和进化背景下的基因功能提供丰富的机会。

Reef-building corals are declining worldwide, largely due to negative anthropogenic effects on their habitats. Efforts to mitigate the loss of this economically and ecologically critical group of organisms is hindered by our lack of understanding of their basic biological processes, including the function of specific genes. In typical model organisms such as fruit fly or mouse, the function of a gene is tested by investigating the consequence of its artificial silencing, a process termed "knockdown". The authors propose to develop knockdown methods for studying functions of coral genes, starting with the genes encoding fluorescent proteins. These proteins are natural visible markers of gene activity, making it straightforward to confirm the efficiency of their knockdown. In addition, the authors plan to verify a hypothesis that these proteins play a specific role in facilitating larval dispersal, a trait that may allow coral populations to recover rapidly after disturbances. The PIs will also engage in teaching coral biology to high school students from underrepresented groups, and in other community outreach activities.Specific gene knockdown is a technical challenge that has not yet been met in corals. The project will test several alternative methods of gene silencing and assess the direct effect of these procedures on the quantity of fluorescent proteins as well as their effects on physiological parameters associated with larval dispersal. In addition to addressing this specific improvement on this Dissertation, the availability of coral gene knockdown method will open up rich opportunities for in-depth analysis of gene function in the context of animal development, adaptation, and evolution.