EAGER: Collaborative Research: Quantifying coral microbiome dynamics under change

珊瑚是珊瑚礁的建筑基础，珊瑚礁是最具生物多样性和生态复杂的海洋生态系统之一，也为沿海社区提供了大量的经济资源。不幸的是，最近发生的大面积白化和疾病减少了珊瑚种群，并导致珊瑚礁生态系统的衰退。有人推测，珊瑚微生物群，包括细菌和古菌群落，可能为珊瑚面对病原体和温暖的海洋条件提供了额外的抵抗力和弹性。然而，没有定量方法可用于跟踪珊瑚微生物组中的特定微生物谱系，从而限制了检查这些概念的能力。这项研究将提高在珊瑚微生物群中定量测量和跟踪特定微生物谱系的能力。珊瑚礁是全球海洋中最受威胁的生态系统之一。该项目将提供方法学上的进步，从而增进对珊瑚微生物组对变暖、疾病和环境相关干扰的反应的了解。这些努力将有助于为科学家、珊瑚礁管理者和决策者提供必要的知识框架，他们正在紧急探索防止珊瑚礁生态系统进一步衰退的解决方案。该团队将通过新闻稿和在线杂志分享的可公开访问的叙述，广泛传播项目发现。该项目将通过数据共享和可视化门户促进珊瑚微生物组科学家之间的数据共享和合作。该项目将培训本科生和研究生，并将由两名女pi（一名西班牙裔）领导。这项研究有可能改变我们目前量化珊瑚微生物组内生态变化的能力，并了解和预测与珊瑚相关的微生物如何能够促进珊瑚对珊瑚礁变暖、疾病和环境变化相关压力源的恢复力和抵抗力。该项目将在方法和资源方面作出贡献，这将促进珊瑚微生物组以及其他宿主-微生物组系统的知识和研究。具体来说，该团队计划开发和测试两种类型的控制，1)刺入微生物细胞和2)珊瑚微生物组特定的模拟群落。这些方法将用于解决以下假设：利用尖刺控制和珊瑚特定模拟群落，获得与相关变化情景相关的珊瑚微生物组动力学的改进定量描述。为了解决这个问题，研究人员将开发细菌和古细菌的内源性峰值控制，以跟踪样品中的微生物负荷或丰度，并构建珊瑚微生物组模拟群落，以优化PCR、测序和数据分析。这些方法将首先在健康、无压力、生态和系统发育多样化的珊瑚物种中以重复实验的方式进行优化。接下来，优化的方法将应用于实验中的珊瑚样本，预计将显示微生物组动态随时间的变化。这些实验包括热应力、珊瑚礁环境变化和疾病发展的情景。这些实验将在小开曼群岛和美属维尔京群岛进行，小开曼群岛的珊瑚礁温度和其他环境特性截然不同，美属维尔京群岛最近爆发了珊瑚疾病。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。

Corals are the architectural base of reefs, one of the most biodiverse and ecologically complex ocean ecosystems that also provide substantial economic resources to coastal communities. Unfortunately, recent episodes of widespread bleaching and disease have reduced coral populations and contributed to declines in reef ecosystems. There is speculation that the coral microbiome, including a community of bacteria and archaea, may provide added resistance and resilience to corals facing pathogens and warmer ocean conditions. However, there are no quantitatively methods available to track specific microbial lineages within coral microbiomes, thus limiting the ability to examine these concepts. This research will improve capabilities to quantitatively measure and track specific microbial lineages within the coral microbiome. Coral reefs are one of the most globally threatened ecosystems in the ocean. The project will provide methodological advancements that will enhance understanding about the response of coral microbiomes to warming, disease and environmental-related disturbance. These efforts will help provide a necessary knowledge framework for scientists, reef managers and decision makers who are urgently exploring solutions to prevent the further decline of coral reef ecosystems. The team will communicate project findings broadly through publicly accessible narratives shared through press releases and an online magazine. This project will promote data sharing and collaboration amongst coral microbiome scientists, through a data sharing and visualization portal. The project will train undergraduate and graduate students and will be led by two female PIs (one Hispanic).This research has the potential to transform our current ability to quantify ecological changes within coral microbiomes and to understand and predict how coral-associated microbes may be able to contribute to the resilience and resistance of corals to warming, disease and environmental change related stressors on reefs. This project will contribute methodological and resource contributions that will advance knowledge and studies of coral microbiomes as well as other host-microbiome systems. Specifically, the team plans to develop and test two types of controls, 1) spike-in microbial cells and 2) a coral microbiome specific mock community. These methods will be used to address the following hypothesis: improved quantitative descriptions of coral microbiome dynamics in relation to relevant scenarios of change are obtained using spike-in controls and coral-specific mock communities. To address this, the investigators will develop endogenous spike-in controls of bacteria and archaea to track microbial load or abundance within samples and construct a coral microbiome mock community to optimize PCR, sequencing and data analysis. These methods will first be optimized in a replicated experimental manner across healthy, nonstressed and ecologically and phylogenetically diverse coral species. Next, optimized methods will be applied to coral samples from experiments, which are expected to show changes in microbiome dynamics over time. These experiments include scenarios of thermal stress, reef environmental change, and disease development. These experiments will take place in Little Cayman, a location with reefs with contrasting temperature and other environmental properties, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands, a site of a recent coral disease outbreak.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.