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生活暴露于可变环境如何塑造晚年生活的特征。 在海洋生物中，已知水中温度或微生物含量的变化会干扰幼虫到成虫生命周期期间免疫系统的发育和功能。 这是如何发生的还不清楚，尽管有证据表明环境诱导的化学物质添加到生物体的DNA中可能起着重要作用。 这种DNA变化，被称为“表观遗传”，可以改变特定基因在幼虫发育成为成虫时打开或关闭的时间和位置。 这项研究将重点研究参与紫海胆免疫系统发育的基因的表观遗传变化，紫海胆是一种生态上重要的海洋居民。 研究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。除了其科学影响外，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，以及为高中生提供通过奥本大学夏季科学研究所进行实践研究的机会来获得教育效益。 快速变化的生态系统正在挑战生物学家，以揭示生物体对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，并反过来，社区组成和生态系统功能。表观基因组正在成为生物体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。拟议的研究采用紫色海胆（Strongylocentrotus purpuratus），以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。这项高度综合性的工作将通过全基因组甲基化分析表征发育过程中的动态表观基因组景观，使用实验方法识别对环境条件有反应的表观遗传信号，并通过使用体内延时显微镜监测对特定病原体的全系统细胞反应将这些变化与免疫表型联系起来。S.紫尾藻特别适合这些研究，因为它在太平洋海带森林中占据重要的生态位，正在经历更高，更长的季节性温度，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。 该系统提供了一个独特的机会，整合生态学，发展，免疫学，实验生物学和计算基因组学的观点，拼凑表观遗传学如何调节表型，以应对环境变化。该项目由理解生命的规则：表观遗传学计划资助，作为NSF十大理念的一部分，通过生物科学理事会新兴前沿部门管理。共同资助是由综合生态生理学计划，综合有机体系统司，生物科学理事会。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.