URoL: Epigenetics 1: Influence of environmental change on the epigenome and phenotypic plasticity in purple sea urchins

这个项目将探索早期暴露在多变的环境中是如何在以后的生活中塑造特征的。在海洋生物中，已知温度或水中微生物含量的变化会扰乱从幼虫到成虫的生命周期中免疫系统的发育和功能。这是如何发生的还不是很清楚，尽管有证据表明，环境诱导的化学添加到生物体的DNA可能发挥了重要作用。当幼虫发育成成虫时，这种DNA变化被称为表观遗传学，可以改变特定基因的开启或关闭的时间和地点。这项研究将重点研究紫海胆免疫系统发育相关基因的表观遗传学变化，紫海胆是一种具有重要生态意义的海洋生物。这些结果有望更好地了解海洋生物如何适应不断变化的海洋环境中的生存。除了它的科学影响，该项目还将通过为本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员提供培训，以及为高中生提供机会，通过奥本大学的暑期科学研究所从事实践研究，从而产生教育效益。快速变化的生态系统向生物学家提出了挑战，要求他们揭示有机体对不断变化的环境做出反应的机制。适应性表型变化可能改变种群动态，进而改变群落组成和生态系统功能。表观基因组正在成为有机基因组和表型之间的潜在中介，尽管这种联系仍然知之甚少。这项拟议的研究使用紫色海胆(紫球海胆)来确定表观基因组和幼虫表型之间的因果联系，重点是免疫功能。这项高度整合的工作将通过全基因组甲基化图谱来表征发育过程中动态的表观基因组图景，使用实验方法识别对环境条件做出反应的表观遗传学信号，并通过使用活体时间推移显微镜监测系统范围内的细胞对特定病原体的反应来将这些变化与免疫表型联系起来。紫海藻特别适合于这些研究，因为它在太平洋海带森林中占据了一个重要的生态位，正在经历更高、更长时间的季节性温度，几十年来一直被用作了解发育、细胞生物学和免疫学的模型。这个系统提供了一个独特的机会来整合来自生态学、发育、免疫学、实验生物学和计算基因组学的观点，以拼凑表观遗传学如何调节表型以应对环境变化。该项目由理解生命规则：表观遗传学计划资助，作为NSF十大想法的一部分，通过生物科学局新兴前沿部门进行管理。共同资助由生物科学局综合组织系统分部综合生态生理学项目提供。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 explore how early-life exposure to variable environments shapes traits in later life. In marine organisms, variation in temperature or microbial content of the water is known to perturb development and function of the immune system during the larvae-to-adult life cycle. How this occurs is not well understood, although evidence suggests that environmentally-induced chemical additions to the organism’s DNA may play an important role. Such DNA changes, referred to as ‘epigenetic’, can alter when and where specific genes are turned on or off as larvae develop to become adults. This research will focus on studying epigenetic changes in genes involved in development of the immune system of the purple sea urchin, an ecologically-important ocean dweller. The results are expected to provide better understanding of how marine organisms adapt for survival in changing ocean environments. In addition to its scientific impact, the project will have educational benefits by providing training for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers, as well as opportunities for high school students to engage in hands-on research through Auburn University’s Summer Science Institute. Rapidly changing ecosystems are challenging biologists to uncover the mechanisms used by organisms to respond to shifting environments. Adaptive phenotypic changes may alter population dynamics, and, in turn, community composition and ecosystem function. The epigenome is emerging as a potential mediator between organismal genomes and phenotypes, although this connection remains minimally understood. The proposed research employs the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) to identify causal linkages between the epigenome and larval phenotypes with an emphasis on immune function. This highly integrative work will characterize the dynamic epigenomic landscape during development through whole genome methylation profiling, identify epigenetic signals that are responsive to environmental conditions using an experimental approach, and link these changes to immunological phenotypes by monitoring the system-wide cellular response to a specific pathogen using in vivo time-lapse microscopy. S. purpuratus is particularly well-suited for these studies, as it occupies an important ecological niche in Pacific kelp forests, is experiencing higher, more prolonged seasonal temperatures, and has been used for decades as a model to understand development, cell biology and immunology. This system offers a unique opportunity to integrate perspectives from ecology, development, immunology, experimental biology, and computational genomics to piece together how epigenetics modulates phenotypes in response to environmental change.This project is funded by the Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics Program, administered as part of NSF's Ten Big Ideas through the Division of Emerging Frontiers in the Directorate for Biological Sciences. Co-funding is provided by the Integrative Ecological Physiology Program, Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, Directorate for Biological Sciences.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.