Multi-channel quantitative PCR machine

请求提供资金，以支持购买实时定量热循环仪系统（q-PCR），该系统将支持维多利亚大学地球和海洋科学学院两个相邻生物海洋学实验室的研究方案。这些设备将被安置在Juniper的实验室中，用于研究海洋原核生物群落的动态。 瓦雷拉的实验室将使用该设备研究浮游植物生理学与海洋中生物重要元素循环之间的联系。 在Juniper实验室，q-PCR机器将成为两种海洋环境研究的关键要素，这两种海洋环境会受到氧化还原条件的影响：季节性缺氧/缺氧峡湾和大洋中脊热液喷口。初步研究将集中在氮和硫循环细菌和自养CO2固定途径，所有这些都在这些环境中发挥重要的生态和地球化学作用。q-PCR系统将使我们能够获得新的见解，这些微生物群落的结构和功能响应的相对重要性，以环境的变化。结构响应将是明显的，因为用16 S rRNA基因或关键代谢基因（例如，硝酸盐还原、硫化物氧化、CO2固定）。通过将实时PCR与逆转录相结合以定量信使RNA，将功能反应检测为基因表达的变化。 瓦雷拉实验室将使用该机器量化浮游植物中N和Si转运蛋白基因的表达，以支持东北太平洋和北冰洋浮游植物营养代谢的研究。除了分析现场样品外，瓦雷拉实验室还将使用该机器支持实验室研究，这些研究将使用浮游植物培养物来研究N和Si限制对转运蛋白基因表达的影响。没有这台机器，我们就无法在实验室进行任何研究或HQP培训，这些研究或培训需要对海洋环境中的特定微生物、功能基因或基因表达进行量化。

Funds are requested to support the purchase of a real-time, quantitative thermo-cycler system (q-PCR) that will support research programs in two adjoining biological oceanography laboratories in the University of Victoria (UVic) School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. The equipment will be housed in Juniper's laboratory where it will be used for studies of the dynamics of marine prokaryote communities. Varela's lab will use the equipment in studies of linkages between phytoplankton physiology and the cycling of biologically significant elements in the ocean. In the Juniper lab, the q-PCR machine will become a key element of studies in two marine environments subject to changing redox conditions: a seasonally anoxic/hypoxic fjord and mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vents. Initial research will focus on nitrogen and sulphur cycle bacteria, and autotrophic CO2 fixation pathways, all of which play important ecological and biogeochemical roles in these environments. The q-PCR system will enable us to gain new insight into the relative importance of structural and functional responses of these microbial communities to environmental variability. Structural responses will be evident as changes in the relative abundances of groups of bacteria (and archaea) detected with primers specific to the 16S rRNA gene or key metabolic genes (eg. nitrate reduction, sulphide oxidation, CO2 fixation). Functional responses will be detected as changes in gene expression, through combining real-time PCR with reverse transcription to quantify messenger RNA. The Varela lab will use the machine to quantify the expression of N and Si transporter genes in phytoplankton in support of studies of phytoplankton nutrient metabolism in the NE Pacific and Arctic Oceans. In addition to analysis of field samples, the Varela lab will use the machine to support laboratory studies that will use phytoplankton cultures to investigate the effect of N and Si limitation on the expression of transporter genes. Without this machine we cannot undertake any research or HQP training in our laboratories requiring the quantification of specific microorganisms, functional genes or gene expression in the marine environment.