The National Science Foundation (NSF) :NSF awards $3 million for plant and animal microbiome and phenomics research .- NSF otorga $ 3 millones para microbioma de plantas y animales e investigación de fenómenos

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=190766&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

Studies may lead to advances in human health, agricultural productivity, use of natural resources

New research on plant and animal microbiomes will lead to advances in human health, agriculture. Credit and Larger Version

January 24, 2017
Millions of microbes living on and in the human body collectively make up our microbiomes. These microbial ecosystems help keep us healthy. The same processes are at work in other animals, as well as in plants.

To better understand the role microbiomes play in human health and in ecosystems around the world, the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences has awarded $3 million in Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER). In addition to microbiomes, the research will focus on plant and animal phenomics -- the study of the physical and biochemical traits of organisms as they change in response to genetic mutations and environmental influences.

The findings will foster improved human health and agricultural productivity and more efficient use of natural resources, such as land and water.

"These studies will lead to a better understanding of how microbial communities interact with one another and with their plant and animal hosts," says James Olds, NSF assistant director for Biological Sciences. "The results have the potential to improve human health through, for example, new insights into antibiotic resistance, and may contribute to discoveries of new bioactive compounds and the development of more efficient and sustainable food production."

The funding is a joint effort between NSF and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). This is the first year the two agencies have partnered on research in the emerging areas of microbiomes and phenomics.

EAGER-funded projects will include research on:

• Technologies that increase the accuracy and speed of microbiome and phenotype data acquisition.
• Extending the diversity of phenotypes that can be measured.
• Automation and mechanization -- including the use of robotics and sensors -- for phenotyping, the process of predicting an organism's observable traits based on its DNA.
• Technologies to identify the metabolic activities of particular microbes within a microbiome, and to increase knowledge of biochemical communication between microbes, and between microbes and their hosts.
• New modeling approaches that address questions in microbiome or phenotype structure and function.

The NSF EAGER awards are listed below.
Identifying Small Molecule Inhibitors, Emily Balskus, Harvard University
High-throughput experimental methods to link mobile genetic elements with their bacterial hosts, Ilana Brito, Cornell University
Microfluidic Root Exudate Sampler with High Spatio-Temporal Sampling Resolution, Liang Dong, Iowa State University
Using novel, clone-free sequencing methods to discover host-microbe protein-protein interactions, Joseph Ecker, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Introducing Gulliver - an autonomous device to grow and study microorganisms in situ, Slava Epstein, Northeastern University
A Plant Observatory for remote sensing of biochemical reactions in vivo, Wolf Frommer, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Microwell array platform for high-throughput screening and discovery of microbial interactions, Ryan Hansen, Kansas State University
Single-locus multi-hormone reporters for comprehensive plant phenotyping: a synthetic-biology approach, Anna Stepanova, North Carolina State University
Chemical exploration of microbiomes at ecological spatial scales, Matt Traxler, University of California, Berkeley
Tools for Investigating Micron-Scale Spatial Organization of Microbial Communities, Jessica Mark Welch, Marine Biological Laboratory

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF, (703) 292-7734, cdybas@nsf.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2016, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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Results of the NSF EAGER grants will offer new insights into antibiotic resistance.
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Antibiotic resistance is on the rise, leading to warnings from major health organizations.
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The NSF-NIFA awards are contributing to the development of sustainable food production.
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Scientists funded by the grants are improving the future of agricultural science.
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The research may lead to discoveries of new bioactive compounds, such as those found in cranberries.
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NSF: Researchers find that Earth may be home to 1 trillion species .- Los investigadores han descubierto que la Tierra puede ser el hogar de 1 billón de especies

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., Tierra podría contener cerca de 1 billón de especies, con sólo una milésima parte de un 1 por ciento ahora identificada, según los resultados de un nuevo estudio.
La estimación, basada en leyes de escala universales aplicadas a grandes conjuntos de datos, aparece hoy en las revista Proceedings de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias. Los autores del informe son Jay Lennon y Kenneth Locey de la Universidad de Indiana en Bloomington, Indiana.
Los científicos combinaron microbianas, vegetales y animales conjuntos de datos procedentes de fuentes científicas gubernamental, académico y ciudadano, lo que resulta en la mayor recopilación de este tipo.
En conjunto, estos datos representan más de 5,6 millones de especies microscópicas y no microscópicas de 35.000 localidades a través de todos los océanos y los continentes del mundo, excepto en la Antártida.

More information....

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=138446&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

 

Largest analysis of microbial data reveals that 99.999 percent of all species remain undiscovered

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone; such hot pools often bubble with undiscovered microbes. Credit and Larger Version

May 2, 2016

Earth could contain nearly 1 trillion species, with only one-thousandth of 1 percent now identified, according to the results of a new study.

The estimate, based on universal scaling laws applied to large datasets, appears today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report's authors are Jay Lennon and Kenneth Locey of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

The scientists combined microbial, plant and animal datasets from government, academic and citizen science sources, resulting in the largest compilation of its kind.

Altogether, these data represent more than 5.6 million microscopic and non-microscopic species from 35,000 locations across all the world's oceans and continents, except Antarctica.

 

Great challenge in biology

 

"Estimating the number of species on Earth is among the great challenges in biology," Lennon said. "Our study combines the largest available datasets with ecological models and new ecological rules for how biodiversity relates to abundance. This gave us a new and rigorous estimate for the number of microbial species on Earth."

He added that "until recently, we've lacked the tools to truly estimate the number of microbial species in the natural environment. The advent of new genetic sequencing technology provides a large pool of new information."

The work is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Dimensions of Biodiversity program, an effort to transform our understanding of the scope of life on Earth by filling major gaps in knowledge of the planet's biodiversity.

"This research offers a view of the extensive diversity of microbes on Earth," said Simon Malcomber, director of the Dimensions of Biodiversity program. "It also highlights how much of that diversity still remains to be discovered and described."

 

Estimating numbers of microbial species

 

Microbial species are forms of life too small to be seen with the naked eye, including single-celled organisms such as bacteria and archaea, as well as certain fungi.

Many earlier attempts to estimate the number of species on Earth ignored microorganisms or were informed by older datasets based on biased techniques or questionable extrapolations, Lennon said.

"Older estimates were based on efforts that dramatically under-sampled the diversity of microorganisms," he added. "Before high-throughput genetic sequencing, scientists characterized diversity based on 100 individuals, when we know that a gram of soil contains up to a billion organisms, and the total number on Earth is more than 20 orders of magnitude greater."

The realization that microorganisms were significantly under-sampled caused an explosion in new microbial sampling efforts over the past several years.

 

Extensive sampling efforts

 

The study's inventory of data sources includes 20,376 sampling efforts on bacteria, archaea and microscopic fungi, as well as 14,862 sampling efforts on communities of trees, birds and mammals.

"A massive amount of data has been collected from these surveys," said Locey. "Yet few have tried to pull together all the data to test big questions."

He added that the scientists "suspected that aspects of biodiversity, like the number of species on Earth, would scale with the abundance of individual organisms. After analyzing a massive amount of data, we observed simple but powerful trends in how biodiversity changes across scales of abundance."

 

Scaling laws for all species

 

The researchers found that the abundance of the most dominant species scales with the total number of individuals across 30 orders of magnitude, "making it the most expansive scaling law in biology," says Lennon.

Scaling laws, like that discovered by the scientists, are known to accurately predict species numbers for plant and animal communities. For example, the number of species scales with the area of a landscape.

"Until now, we haven't known whether aspects of biodiversity scale with something as simple as the abundance of organisms," Locey said. "As it turns out, the relationships are not only simple but powerful, resulting in our estimate of upward of one trillion species."

The study's results also suggest that identifying every microbial species on Earth presents a huge challenge.

"Of those species cataloged, only about 10,000 have ever been grown in a lab, and fewer than 100,000 have classified genetic sequences," Lennon said. "Our results show that this leaves 100,000 times more microorganisms awaiting discovery -- and 100 million to be fully explored.

"Microbial biodiversity, it appears, is greater than we ever imagined."

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF, (703) 292-7734,
 cdybas@nsf.gov
Kevin Fryling, Indiana University, (812) 856-2988,
 kfryling@iu.edu

Related WebsitesLife on Earth: National Science Foundation awards $23 million for studies of planet's biodiversity: https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=136222
New insights into coral health hidden in reefs' microbiomes: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=138157
Earth Day is on the horizon. But is 'greener' always better?: http://nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=134374&org=NSF
Staple of recipe favorites--the tomato--reveals processes that maintain biodiversity: http://nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=129676
A Stream Is a Stream Is a Stream: Or Is It?: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123855&org=NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2016, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

 Get News Updates by Email 
Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page:
 http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News:
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For the News Media:
 http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics:
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches:
 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

Heat-loving microbes form extensive mats at Octopus Geyser in Yellowstone.
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The oceans' surface waters harbor vast numbers of life-sustaining microbes.
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Bacteria, like these from a freshwater lake, are the most abundant organisms on the planet.
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Soil is one of Earth's largest reservoirs of microbial diversity.
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Data collected by field biologists were used to understand patterns of microbial biodiversity.
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The National Science Foundation (NSF)
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nsf.gov - National Science Foundation - Earth Day: Disease spread among species is predictable .- Día de la Tierra: la propagación de enfermedades entre las especies es predecible....

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido información de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de Los Estados unidos, con ocasión sobre la celebración del Día de la Tierra, que nos aseguran que la propagación de enfermedades  entre las especies ahora es predecible.

NSF, nos dice : "En el Día de la Tierra, un estudio de la dinámica de la enfermedad en un prado de California ha revelado los principios fundamentales que subyacen a la propagación de agentes patógenos o microbios causantes de enfermedades, entre las especies.
Los resultados, anunciados hoy en la revista Nature, tienen implicaciones para el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad y para hacer frente a los problemas prácticos relacionados con enfermedades de las plantas....."

NSF, agrega: " Investigadores de la Universidad de California, en Santa Cruz, estudiaron el fenómeno de "spillover patógeno" en especies de pastizales en el campus de la Universidad de California en Santa Cruz......

Ellos encontraron que la cantidad de enfermedades presentes en cada especie podía predecirse por la abundancia de sus parientes cercanos en el pastizal. Cuando había muchos individuos de la misma o similar especies que viven cerca juntos, los patógenos se propagan más rápidamente.
Aunque parezca increíble, que a su vez promueve la biodiversidad mediante la creación de aberturas para las especies menos comunes que no son atacadas por estos mismos agentes patógenos...."

 

Study in California grassland expands understanding of biodiversity and management of emerging diseases

Scientists conduct a plant survey in a grassland on the University of California Santa Cruz campus. Credit and Larger Version

April 22, 2015

On Earth Day, a study of disease dynamics in a California grassland has revealed fundamental principles underlying the spread of pathogens, or disease-causing microbes, among species.

The results, announced today in the journal Nature, have implications for the maintenance of biodiversity and for addressing practical problems related to plant disease.

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studied the phenomenon of "pathogen spillover" in grassland species on the UC Santa Cruz campus.

They found that the amount of disease present on each species could be predicted by the abundance of its close relatives in the grassland. When there were many individuals of the same or similar species living close together, pathogens spread more quickly.

Perhaps unexpectedly, that in turn promotes biodiversity by creating openings for less common species that are not attacked by these same pathogens.

 

Link between community structure and individual disease vulnerability

 

The findings reveal a tight link between the structure of a plant community and the vulnerability of individual species to disease.

"These scientists demonstrate that the relatedness of species in communities is an important predictor of disease prevalence," said Alan Tessier, acting director of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

The researchers were able to predict which plant species introduced into the grassland would be most strongly affected by naturally-occurring diseases.

Ingrid Parker, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at UC Santa Cruz and first author of the paper, said the study adds an important new dimension to a longstanding concept in ecology known as the "rare species advantage."

 

Diseases take greater toll on common species

 

"The rare species advantage is thought to be a major driver of biodiversity in natural ecosystems," Parker said. "Most pathogens are not host specialists--they can easily move from one species to another. Whether pathogens 'spill over' depends on how closely related other species nearby are.

"Our study shows that it's the structure of the whole community around a species that affects its vulnerability to disease."

 

Large-scale experiment with 44 plant species

 

In a large-scale experiment, the researchers introduced 44 plant species from outside California. (The plants were removed before they reproduced.)

The biologists found that species with few close relatives in the grassland escaped disease, while those closely related to many resident species always showed high levels of disease.

The researchers were able to make surprisingly accurate predictions of disease in introduced species based on their phylogenetic, or evolutionary, distance from local species.

"It was kind of shocking how well we were able to predict disease at a local scale," Parker said.

 

Modeling "PhyloSusceptibility"

 

To incorporate the phylogenetic distance between species into their predictions of disease dynamics, the researchers used a "PhyloSusceptibility model" developed by scientist Gregory Gilbert at UC Santa Cruz and two other paper co-authors, Roger Magarey and Karl Suiter of North Carolina State University, who work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The model is based on USDA's global database of fungal pathogens and host plants, and can be used to predict the probability of two species sharing a pathogen.

"If a plant pathogen from Brazil suddenly shows up in southern California, you want to know what plants in California are most likely to be attacked," Gilbert said.

By showing that the PhyloSusceptibility model makes accurate predictions, the results suggest a range of potential applications.

The PhyloSusceptibility model could help avoid disease problems affecting proposed horticultural imports or reforestation projects.

It could also be used in agriculture to design intercropping or rotation systems to decrease crop disease.

 

Vulnerability of local species to "pathogen spillover"

 

Imported plants can bring new pathogens and pests into an area. The PhyloSusceptibility model could be used to assess the vulnerability of local species to pathogen spillover from such plant introductions, the scientists say.

While the PhyloSusceptibility model used in this study was based on data for fungal pathogens, Gilbert said the team has also created versions based on data for eight other groups of pests and pathogens, including insects, nematodes, bacteria and viruses.

In addition to Parker, Gilbert, Magarey and Suiter, the co-authors of the study include UC Santa Cruz researchers Megan Saunders, Megan Bontrager, Andrew Weitz and Rebecca Hendricks.

USDA also funded the work.

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF, (703) 292-7734, cdybas@nsf.gov
Tim Stephens, UCSC, (831) 459-4352, stephens@ucsc.edu

Related WebsitesNSF Grant: Rare-species advantage: consequences of phylogenetic and numerical rarity of hosts for disease pressure and pathogen communities:
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0842059&HistoricalAwards=false

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2015, its budget is $7.3 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 48,000 competitive proposals for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $626 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

 Get News Updates by Email 
Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page:
http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media:
 http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics:
 http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches:
 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

An explosion of rare California poppies in the Great Meadow on the UCSC campus.
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Wild radishes are surrounded by abundant diseased grasses.
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Non-resident experimental plants are placed in a meadow to test for disease susceptibility.
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Disease symptoms on common grass in the UCSC Great Meadow.
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Researchers glue leaves of wild plants to blue paper for disease symptom assessment.
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nsf.gov - National Science Foundation - "Social" bacteria that work together to hunt for food and survive under harsh conditions

Research into multi-cell bacterium could lead to new antibiotics or to development of new pest-resistant seeds

This image shows Mycococcus xanthus in action. Credit and Larger Version

December 20, 2013

When considering the behavior of bacteria, the word "social" doesn't often come to mind.

Yet some bacteria are quite social, chief among them Myxococcus xanthus, a soil-dwelling bacterium that organizes itself into multi-cellular, three-dimensional structures made up of thousands of cells that work together to hunt for food and survive under harsh conditions.

"For the first 100 years of microbiology, researchers were trying to find model organisms to study bacteria, and most were selected because they had some medical or industrial significance influence, such as E. coli, and because they grow very well in the standard test tube," says Oleg Igoshin, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice University. "But when you base your choice on their behavior in a test tube, and not on social behavior or spatial structure, you lose some interesting species to study.

"The story is quite different for Myxococcus xanthus," he adds. "They are a very social bacteria that form really cool structures, and rely on each other for survival."

Myxococcus xanthus is "predatory," meaning it eats other microbes, although it is not harmful to humans. It is of great interest to researchers because of its self-made complex spatial formations, some even visible to the naked eye, and because it can kill efficiently and digest a wide range of microbial species.

"Their three-dimensional structures contain hundreds of thousands of bacteria, plus extra cellular material that holds the bacteria together like glue," says the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded computational biologist, who is using both data-driven modeling and simulations to learn how M. xanthus behaves when there is sufficient food available, and when there is not. "We are trying to identify the mechanisms to understand how they achieve their multi-cellular behaviors."

Studying this organism addresses fundamental biological questions about how individual cells can break their symmetry to organize into these complicated many-celled compositions, teaching scientists about the evolution of multi-cellularity. "The most primitive form of life is single-cell life," Igoshin says. "The next step up would be going from single cells to multicellular organisms. These bacteria are somewhat in the middle."

When food is plentiful, these bacteria move in coordinated swarms, called ripples, often containing thousands of cells, which secrete enzymes into the environment to kill their prey and digest it outside their structure before taking in the resulting nutrients.

"M. xanthus has the ability to produce some powerful antibiotics that kill other species and enzymes that chew up the prey proteins into small segments," Igoshin says. "Single cells can't produce enough of these antibiotics or enzymes to effectively kill their prey, which is why they hunt together as a group."

But when food is scarce, M. xanthus takes another shape, forming itself into mounds of spores called fruiting bodies, where they can survive for a long time, sometimes for many years, until conditions improve and they can germinate again. "A single spore wouldn't survive," he says. "They need to be together."

The insights gained from a better understanding of how this bacterium functions potentially could help future researchers in designing new antibiotics, or possibly have a role in agricultural practices, such as developing new pest-resistant seeds. Moreover, deciphering the basic biology of multicellular organization can help to understand its more complex manifestations, such as embryonic development.

Igoshin is using M. xanthus as a model system for his computational tools, using approaches that involve both data analysis and simulation, both of which "have become a cornerstone of biological research in the modern era of biology," he says.

"I use reverse engineering approaches to look at these microscopic structures and try to figure out what these individual cells should do in order to produce this type of behavior," he adds. "I put in parameters such as size, velocity, flexibility, speed--some we can measure, some we can guess--and see whether the computer simulations will produce structures similar to those observed."

Igoshin is conducting his research under an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which he received in 2009. The award supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization. NSF is funding his work with $640,000 over five years.

He is collaborating with other experimental labs to study this organism, including Roy Welch, associate professor of biology at Syracuse University; Lawrence Shimkets, professor of biology at the University of Georgia; and Heidi Kaplan, associate professor of microbiology and genetics at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School.

As part of the grant's educational component, Igoshin and his colleagues created a new interdisciplinary graduate program at Rice offering doctoral degree in systems, synthetic, and physical biology, that began in the fall of 2013. Igoshin, who co-wrote the program proposal, serves on the program steering committee, and the admission and recruitment committee.

"Answering complex biological questions in the post-genomic era will require multidisciplinary approaches combining both experimental and computational methods" he says. "Our new program aims to educate a new generation of life-scientists that have truly interdisciplinary training and therefore can work together on these challenges."

--	Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation

Investigators Oleg Igoshin

Related Institutions/Organizations William Marsh Rice University

Related Awards#0845919 CAREER: Self-organization mechanisms in Myxococcus xanthus swarms

Oleg Igoshin is an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice University.
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The National Science Foundation (NSF)

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

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nsf.gov - National Science Foundation - Sick Sea Fans: Undersea "Doctors" to the Rescue

Scientists discover genes involved in immunity of sea fans to coral diseases.-

In sea fans, scientists discover new immunity genes. See photo gallery for sea fan 'Message in a Bottle.'
Credit: NSF
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A sea fan fights back against disease; its response is marked by dark purple inflammation. Credit: E. Weil

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Scientist Drew Harvell examines sea fans in Puerto Rico for signs of recovery. Credit: E. Weil

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Beautiful and healthy now, the purple sea fan may fall ill from a host of infectious diseases. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Close-up of formerly sick sea fan that's recovering nicely from ocean diseases. Credit: D. Harvell

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Marine ecologist Ernesto Weil looks at a sick sea fan; he's studying sea fan immune systems. Credit: D. Harvell

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The following is part five in a series on the NSF-NIH Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program. For part one, see Cool Cat in a Hot Zone. For part two:

Snails in the Waters, Disease in the Villages.

For part three: Underwater Whodunit: What's Killing Florida's Elkhorn Coral?

For part four: "Defective" Virus Leads to Epidemic of Dengue Fever.

Like all of us, corals get sick. They respond to pathogens (disease-causing microbes) and recover or die. But unlike us, they can't call a doctor for treatment.

Instead, help has arrived in the form of scientists who study the causes of the corals' disease, and the immune factors that might be important in their response and resistance.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), scientists Drew Harvell and Colleen Burge of Cornell University and their colleagues have developed a catalog of genes that, the researchers say, will allow us to better understand the immune systems of corals called sea fans.

The marine ecologists have trained their undersea eyes on a particular sea fan species, Gorgonia ventalina, or the purple sea fan, found in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

The team has monitored sea fan health in the Florida Keys, Mexican Yucatan and Puerto Rico for the past 15 years. The most recent research, in collaboration with Ernesto Weil of the University of Puerto Rico, is underway on reefs at La Parguera, Puerto Rico.

Gorgonia ventalina is a fan-shaped coral with several main branches and a latticework of smaller branches. Its skeleton is composed of calcite and gorgonian, a collagen-like compound. Purple sea fans often have smaller, accessory fans growing sideways out of their main fans.

These large sea fans fare best near shore in shallow waters with strong waves and on deeper outer reefs with strong currents, down to a depth of about 50 feet. Small polyps on the graceful fans catch plankton drifting by on fast-flowing currents.

Turning (more) purple

Life as a purple sea fan isn't always easy. The coral may be attacked by the fungus Aspergillus sydowii, which causes the disease aspergillosis.

It results in damaged patches on the fan, extreme purpling of tissues and sometimes death. Several outbreaks of aspergillosis have occurred in the Caribbean; corals in stressful conditions such as warming waters may be especially susceptible.

"Diseases and climate change are very tightly linked," says Mike Lesser, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences, which funds the research along with the joint NSF-National Institutes of Health Evolution and Ecology of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program.

"The role of climate change in diseases is important," Lesser says, "for understanding the spread of infectious diseases in every corner of the globe, including the oceans."

Adds Sam Scheiner, NSF EEID program director, "Human-induced climate change is having profound effects on many parts of the world. As this research shows, coral reefs are being decimated by the combination of climate change and infectious diseases."

Undersea "doctors" come to sea fans' aid

Harvell agrees.

In a paper published earlier this year in The Annual Review of Marine Science, Harvell, Burge and other scientists reviewed climate change influences on marine infectious diseases.

Now the scientists are using the purple sea fan as a model for studying ocean diseases. "We're looking at microbial infection, pathways of defense and the health of this sea fan in the face of warming waters and climate change," says Harvell.

"All animals on Earth--from humans to fish to corals--are susceptible to infection by pathogens that cause illness," she says. "What we hope to answer is: How widespread are these infections? Why do they happen? And, what can we do about them?"

Coral reefs are declining worldwide. Even very old coral colonies in remote locations are dying. "Disease-related deaths are caused in part by pathogens alone and in part by interactions between pathogens and climate change," says Burge.

Many of these pathogens are unidentified, leaving sea fans and their coral relatives at high risk.

But the mystery is slowly being solved.

The scientists have discovered two pathogens in purple sea fans. The microbes are being cultured and used to examine how sea fans' immune systems work.

Past is prologue?

A look back a decade or more may provide clues to the present--and the future--for sea fans.

From 1996 through 2004, thousands of sea fans in the Caribbean died of aspergillosis. Many survived, however, and appear resistant to further attack.

But they're far from home free.

Purple sea fans are now being infected by a new pathogen, called Aplanochytrium. Burge was the first to isolate and culture the microbe from a sick sea fan.

Aplanochytrium is a member of an order of lethal microbes known as Labyrinthulomycetes. It grows faster at warmer temperatures, leaving sea fans in "hot water."

Corals don't have "immune memory," such as the T cells and antibodies found in humans. Instead they have an ancient defense system called the innate immune system.

Studying sea fans' immunity through their genes is an important step in protecting them, says Burge.

"We used molecular biology and bioinformatics--a combination of biology, computer science and information technology--to make a set of the genes' messages, called transcripts," she says. "Then we characterized these messages, which are known collectively as a transcriptome."

The results, reported this month in a paper in the journal Frontiers in Physiology, are the first to show which genes are activated in response to pathogens in sea fans. Co-authors of the paper are Burge, Harvell and Morgan Mouchka of Cornell, and Steven Roberts of the University of Washington.

Message in a (genetic) bottle

The purple sea fan may hold messages for the oceans, and for us, but the messages come in a genetic bottle.

The scientists studied what's called messenger RNA, which transfers genetic messages, in sea fans exposed to Aplanochytrium, comparing it with that of unexposed sea fans.

They found that the sea fans' genes hold clues to questions such as how the fans recognize and kill pathogens, and how they repair injured tissues.

The scientists are increasing the sea fan genetic "catalog" by adding genes expressed, or turned on, in response to record-breaking Caribbean Sea temperatures in 2010.

The researchers, working in Puerto Rico with Weil and Laura Mydlarz of the University of Texas at Arlington, assessed the effect of the 2010 Caribbean coral bleaching event, as it's known, on sea fans' genes and immune function.

The study compared immune system genes in a heat-sensitive coral species, Orbicella annularis, the boulder star coral, with that of Gorgonia ventalina.

The purple sea fan was thought to be resilient to the stresses of warming waters. But Gorgonia ventalina, the scientists found, is also susceptible to the double whammy of disease and warming.

--	Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov

Related WebsitesNSF Special Report: The Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases:

 http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/index.jsp
NSF Award: EEID: Evaluating the Effects of a Changing Ocean on Management and Ecology of Infectious Marine Disease:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1215977
NSF Award: Effect of the 2010 Caribbean Coral Bleaching Event:

 http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1105201&HistoricalAwards=false
NSF News: Controlling the Spread of Diseases Among Humans, Other Animals and the Environment:

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125496

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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