Developing genomic resources:the toxic dinoflagellate

描述（由申请方提供）：塔玛亚历山大藻是一种单细胞甲藻原生生物，通过产生石房蛤毒素引起有害藻华（HAB）和麻痹性贝类中毒。人们对影响有害藻华形成的因素、有害藻华最近向新地区的扩散以及与毒素产生有关的基因知之甚少。我们的工作还表明，甲藻是了解内共生（细胞器发生）和水平基因转移，因为他们无与伦比的能力，主机不同的质体内共生体和积累基因，通过水平基因转移的杰出模型。在这里，我们建议产生一个重要的基因组学资源亚历山大藻，以加快生物学和控制赤潮和核基因组进化的甲藻的研究。我们的具体目标是使用一个高效的基因发现策略，以产生一个全面的表达序列标签（EST）单基因集亚历山大。系统基因组和详细的系统发育分析的不同序列的Alexandrum unigene集将导致树，有助于阐明从内共生菌和其他来源的甲藻核基因组进化的水平基因转移的贡献。我们还将使用大规模并行签名测序分析，为在影响营养生理学，细胞和生命周期阶段以及毒素产生的不同培养条件下生长的Alexandrum细胞创建转录组标签数据库。这项工作将帮助我们确定参与这些功能的靶基因，并将为未来的微阵列分析奠定基础。这项建议是一个综合的，合作的努力，依赖于分子进化，EST加工，和cDNA基因组学（巴塔查里亚，恐惧），高质量的cDNA文库构建（恐惧），以及在生态学和生理学的亚历山大（安德森）的专业知识。这项研究的结果将为科学家提供宝贵的分子资源，以了解像Alexandrum这样的HAB物种的生态和毒性，并将为这些迷人的原生生物提供第一个全面的基因组学资源。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alexandrium tamarense is a unicellular dinoflagellate protist that causes harmful algal blooms (HABs) and paralytic shellfish poisoning through the production of saxitoxins. Very little is known about the factors that influence the formation of HABs, their recent spread to new areas, and the genes involved in toxin production. Our work also shows that dinoflagellates are outstanding models for understanding endosymbiosis (organelle genesis) and horizontal gene transfer because of their unparalleled ability to host different plastid endosymbionts and to accumulate genes through horizontal gene transfer. Here we propose to generate a significant genomics resource for Alexandrium to accelerate research on the biology and control of HABs and on nuclear genome evolution in dinoflagellates. Our specific aims are to use a highly efficient gene discovery strategy to generate a comprehensive expressed sequence tag (EST) unigene set for Alexandrium. Phylogenomic and detailed phylogenetic analysis of the different sequences in the Alexandrium unigene set will result in trees that help elucidate the contribution of horizontal gene transfer from endosymbionts and other sources to dinoflagellate nuclear genome evolution. We will also use massively parallel signature sequencing analysis to create a transcriptome tag database for Alexandrium cells grown in different culture conditions that affect nutrient physiology, cell and life cycle stages, and toxin production. This work will help us identify target genes involved in these functions and will form the basis for future microarray analyses. This proposal is an integrated, collaborative effort that relies on expertise in molecular evolution, EST processing, and phylogenomics (Bhattacharya, Scares), high quality cDNA library construction (Scares), and expertise in the ecology and physiology of Alexandrium (Anderson). The results of this study will result in a valuable molecular resource for scientists working to understand the ecology and toxicity of HAB species like Alexandrium and will provide the first comprehensive genomics resource for these fascinating protists.