CAREER: The Small RNA Biology of Lophotrochozoa

该项目将在光栖动物（软体动物和节段蠕虫）中开发RNA干扰（RNAi）技术，其具体目标是帮助墨西哥湾濒危的牡蛎渔业。RNAi是一种影响生物体基因的流行方法，但在这组动物中相对未经过测试。该项目将确定RNAi在光合动物中起作用的不同方式。从这项研究中获得的见解可以指导生物技术战略，以不产生转基因生物的方式开发和产生理想的性状，例如抗病性。行业参与者和社区将参与讨论基于rnai的方法如何支持和造福牡蛎养殖。这项研究将涉及研究生、博士后、水产养殖专家以及南密西西比大学本科生。将提供一系列课程，以跨学期的形式探讨该项目的问题，为学生提供课堂上真正的研究经验。多学科实验策略涉及生物化学，遗传学和计算生物学方法将在项目中使用。这项研究的基石将是基于高通量测序的小rna （RNAi的效应物）表征。测序数据的分析将用于确定外源rna的生产方式、靶标和命运。初步分析发现，与经过充分研究的动物相比，牡蛎的小RNA种群差异很大，这表明可能存在一种全新的RNAi策略。随后的实验将使用分离、代谢标记和酶处理来表征小RNA的行为。这些努力将共同阐明一个未被探索的生物多样性分支，具有更广泛的影响目标，即开发牡蛎的遗传技术-一个具有经济和文化意义的物种。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will develop RNA interference (RNAi) technology in lophotrochozoans (mollusks and segmented worms) with the specific goal of aiding the Gulf of Mexico's imperiled oyster fisheries. RNAi is a popular method for affecting an organism's genes, but is relatively untested in this group of animals. The project will identify the distinct ways RNAi works in lophotrochozoans. The insights gained from this research could guide biotechnological strategies to develop and generate desirable traits, such as disease resistance, in a manner that does not create genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Industry players and communities will be engaged to discuss how an RNAi-based approach can support and benefit oyster aquaculture. The research will involve graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and aquaculture specialists as well as students in undergraduate classes at the University of Southern Mississippi. A course series will be offered that explores the project's questions in a semester-spanning format, providing students with bona fide research experiences in the classroom.A multidisciplinary experimental strategy involving biochemistry, genetics, and computational biology approaches will be employed in the project. A cornerstone of the research will be high-throughput sequencing-based characterization of small RNAs - the effectors of RNAi. Analysis of sequencing data will be used to determine mode of production, targets, and the fate of foreign RNAs. Preliminary analysis found that oysters have dramatically divergent small RNA populations compared to well-studied animals, suggesting potential for a wholly new RNAi strategy. Subsequent experiments will characterize small RNA behaviors using fractionation, metabolic labeling, and enzymatic treatments. Together these efforts will elucidate an unexplored biology in a diverse clade of animals, with a broader impact goal of developing genetic technology in oysters - an economically and culturally significant species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.