Incubator shaker for microbe growth

病原体以多种形式出现，通过使我们生病来直接影响人类，也通过使我们收获的动植物生病来间接影响人类。为了对抗病原体，我们必须了解它们。获得这种知识的关键方法是确定它们的基因组序列。这为病原体如何发挥作用提供了蓝图，并为我们提供了一种确定致病机制的手段。巴里·萨维尔在真菌病原体Ustilago maydis的基因组注释中发挥了重要作用，他刚刚加入特伦特大学的教职，并为这一应用与克雷格·布内蒂合作，他在确定致瘤性痘病毒Yaba猴子肿瘤病毒的基因组序列方面发挥了重要作用。根据手头上各自病原体的基因组序列，两位研究人员都在确定已识别基因的功能。在萨维尔的研究中，这一过程对微生物的大量生长有绝对的要求。在萨维尔的研究中，这是因为他与一种真菌合作，这种真菌必须大量种植才能提供接种物来测试致病机理。他的研究涉及删除和突变病原体中的特定基因，然后确定这些突变对真菌生长和感染其宿主玉米的能力的影响。在Brunetti实验室，这是因为病毒基因功能的确定需要在宿主细胞中表达细菌产生的载体中的病毒蛋白，以及在真菌培养中产生这些蛋白后在体外对这些蛋白进行表征。用于病原学分析的真菌以及用于载体和蛋白质生产的细菌和真菌的生长必须严格控制在温度和曝气方面。由于这一点，以及所需的能力，两位研究人员都必须能够接触到所需的孵化摇床。事实上，如果没有这个孵化器，他们将无法继续进行已经由NSERC资助的研究。所要求的培养箱对于培训人们进行病原体研究也是必不可少的，共享这一资源提供了一种经济高效的方式来了解病原体，增加了我们防御它们的机会。

Pathogens come in many forms and affect humans directly, by making us sick, as well as indirectly, by making the plants and animals we harvest sick. In order to fight pathogens we must understand them.  A key way to gain this knowledge is to determine their genome sequence.  This provides the blueprint of how the pathogen functions and provides us with a means to determine the mechanisms of pathogenesis.  Barry Saville, who has been instrumental in the annotation of the genome of the fungal pathogen Ustilago maydis has just joined the faculty at Trent University and, for this application, has teamed up with Craig Bunetti, who had a major role in the determination of the genome sequence of the tumorigenic poxvirus Yaba Monkey Tumor Virus.   With the genome sequences of the respective pathogens in hand both researchers are determining the functions of identified genes.  This process has an absolute requirement for the growth of microbes in large volumes.  In the Saville research this is because he works with a fungus that must be grown in large quantities to provide inoculum to test pathogenesis.  His research entails deleting and mutating specific genes in the pathogen and then determining the affect that these mutations have on fungus' growth and ability to infect its host, corn. In the Brunetti laboratory this is because determination of viral gene function requires expressing viral proteins in host cells from vectors produced in bacteria as well as the characterization of these proteins in vitro following their production in fungal cultures. The growth of fungi for pathogenesis assays and bacteria and fungi for vector and protein production must be strictly controlled in terms of temperature and aeration. Because of this, and the capacity required, it is essential that both researchers have access to the incubated shaker requested.  In fact without this incubator they will be unable to continue research already funded by NSERC. The requested incubator is also essential for training people in pathogen research and the sharing of this resource provides a cost effective way to gain an understanding of pathogens, increasing our chances of defending against them.