Collaborative Research: LIA: Genomic Mechanisms Controlling the Slow Development of the Antarctic Urchin Sterechinus Neumayeri

南极海洋无脊椎动物的发育速度非常慢。这种现象在独立的南极谱系中反复出现，包括海胆，海星，腕足动物和带状蠕虫。尽管有这些观察结果，人们对南极海洋无脊椎动物发育缓慢的分子机制知之甚少。 该提案正在开发南极海胆，Sterechinus neumayeri，作为评估冷水生物适应和发展的模式无脊椎生物。从麦克默多湾收集的海胆正在仔细控制的实验室实验中进行研究。这项工作是专门确定基因调控网络组件负责调节发育时间在S。neumayeri，更普遍的是，在适应南大洋极端环境的过程中，哪些基因调控网络元件进化了。实验室的工作主要集中在两个方面：1）鉴定S. 2）分析了在南大洋发育适应过程中进化出的新马齿藻早期关键基因的空间表达和功能。neumayeri基因调控网络控制着沿早期前-后轴沿着区域的特化和模式化。来自温暖地区的更好的研究海胆的比较分析将用于通知这项工作。这一努力与生物学的几个领域有关，从极地生物学，发育生物学，进化和基因组学，同时明确地将基因型与表型联系起来。更广泛的影响：该提案包括三名初入南极研究项目的职业调查员，他们与一位知名的南极调查员一起工作。该团队开发了一个雄心勃勃的计算机编码和生物学科学技术培训计划，目标是代表性不足的学生。他们还开发了基于网络的生物信息学培训博客“2-bitbio”，旨在降低进入生物信息学领域的“门槛”。该奖项反映了NSF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。

Antarctic marine invertebrates exhibit extraordinarily slow rates of development. This phenomenon has arisen repeatedly in independent Antarctic lineages, including sea urchins, sea stars, brachiopods, and ribbon worms. Despite these observations, little is known about the molecular mechanisms responsible for slow developmental rates in Antarctic marine invertebrates. This proposal is developing the Antarctic sea urchin, Sterechinus neumayeri, as a model invertebrate organism to evaluate cold water organismal adaptation and development. Urchins collected from McMurdo Sound are being studied in carefully controlled laboratory experiments. This work is specifically identifying the gene regulatory network components responsible for regulating developmental timing in S. neumayeri and, more generally, which gene regulatory network elements evolved during adaption to the extreme environment of the Southern Ocean. The lab-based work is focusing in two specific areas: 1) Identify unique gene regulatory network components of S. neumayeri that evolved during its developmental adaptation to the Southern Ocean, and 2) Analyze spatial expression and functions of key genes in the early S. neumayeri gene regulatory networks controlling specification and patterning of territories along the early anterior-posterior axis. A comparative analysis of better studied urchins from warmer regions will be used to inform this work. This effort is relevant to several fields of biology ranging from polar biology, developmental biology, evolution, and genomics while explicitly tying genotype to phenotype. Broader impacts: The proposal included three early career investigators who are new to Antarctic research programs working alongside a well-established Antarctic investigator. The team has developed an ambitious program for science and technology training in computer coding and biology targeted for underrepresented students. They also have developed web-based bioinformatics training blog, “2-bitbio”, which aims to decrease the ‘barrier to entry’ into the field of bioinformatics.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.