ESUMAST · Ecological significance of uncultured marine stramenopiles
6РП — Действия „Мария Кюри“
- Период
- 2005-12-01 → 2007-11-30
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 136 448 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- EIF
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Морските микроорганизми от групата MAST се изследват чрез техните хранителни връзки с бактерии и планктон. Разбирането на тези процеси помага да се разбере как протистите влияят върху глобалните биогеохимични цикли на въглерода и азота.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Final Activity Report Summary - ESUMAST (Ecological significance of uncultured marine stramenopiles)
Marine microbes have a significant ecological impact at the global scale. Indeed, they account for a significant contribution to the main biogeochemical cycles (e.g. carbon, nitrogen). Study of their diversity and interactions are major issues in the fields of biological oceanography and marine microbial ecology. Their eukaryotic component (i.e. protists) is by far the poorest known. Among these eukaryotic marine microbes, heterotrophic flagellates have been for long time recognised as fundamental players of marine food webs. However, the study of their function in marine ecosystems has been hampered by the lack of knowledge on the specific populations forming these assemblages. Also, as commonly highlighted in environmental molecular diversity studies, most dominant micro-organisms are presently uncultured. The ESUMAST project focused on uncultured flagellates named MAST for Marine Stramenopiles, which are well represented in natural environments. The first objective of this project aimed to assess the trophic relationships which exist between different MAST flagellates and the other components of the microbial food web, such as bacteria or photosynthetic picoplankton. We demonstrated the existence of different feeding behaviours, such as size selection and/or prey preferences, among the MAST groups. The second and main objective of the project was to obtain these organisms in culture so that we can carry out physiological and genomic studies, which stands nowadays as one of the primary goals in marine microbial ecology. By designing original isolation experiments we achieved to culture not only a representative of a MAST group but a variety of other heterotrophic flagellates, all belonging to uncultured taxa. The achievement of cultures for a range of these eukaryotic microbes opens up new perspectives and has major implications for scientific fields related to genomics, microbial ecology, biological oceanography, and macro-evolution of eukaryotes.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
This project addresses the key issue of the relationship between diversity and ecological function in the uncultured heterotrophic eukaryotic microbes dominant in marine planktonic food webs. On one hand, heterotrophic flagellates is a functional group wit h accepted central roles in marine ecosystems (grazing on picoplankton, nutrient remineralization) and studies so far have treated them as a black box, formed mostly by small and unidentified cells.On the other hand, several recent molecular studies based on environmental rDNA sequences have revealed the existence of unknown eukaryotic microorganisms. A significant number of these sequences were found to be affiliated to the stramenopile taxon, a very heterogeneous assemblage of protists, but were not similar to any known group. Those were named MAST (Marine Stramenopiles), and some of them are heterotrophic and bacterivorous flagellates.Even though scientists start to have an idea of the distribution and phylogenetic relationships within these MAST groups, their role and significance in marine microbial food webs remains largely unknown. In the proposed research project, we will use a combination of innovative methodologies within a multi-disciplinary oceanographic context to open the heterotrophic flagellates' black box and investigate the ways MAST organisms interact with the other components of the natural microbial assemblage, particularly with photosynthetic picoplankton, which are major primary producers in the oceans.The host research team is one of the most experienced European teams in that field and the structured training program is designed to provide broad experience in the application of cutting-edge techniques to investigate major cross disciplinary issues in modern microbial ecology and oceanography. The training objectives are directly motivated by the applicant's ambition to acquire complementary skills in order to develop an independent high level research career in Europe.
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · MADRIDКоординаторИспания
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз