Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

In this proposal we are requesting funding to purchase a platform for high-throughput sequencing and culturing of microbial biodiversity. The requested equipment consists of the tools required for the preparation of molecular libraries for DNA and RNA sequencing to quantify microbial biodiversity by sequencing, and to successfully grow microbial populations in culture in the laboratory. This equipment includes automated instruments for high--speed processing of biological samples to extract and purify DNA and RNA, prepare libraries of biological samples for high--throughput sequencing, and to grow microbial populations in the laboratory under differing environmental conditions. The equipment will make it possible to rapidly move from biological samples to sequences and strains in culture in the lab, and then to biological insights at a rate that is impossible using currently available equipment. The requested equipment is essential to support our research programs studying microbial biodiversity in terrestrial subsurface and plant-associated habitats. Lazar's research focuses on the terrestrial subsurface, which extends from the surface to underground bedrock layers and is the part of the Earth that contains most of our drinking water. This region of the Earth is also a source of novel enzymes functioning in geochemically harsh conditions, which are of extreme importance in biotechnology fields such as bioremediation. Kembel's research focuses on understanding the biodiversity of microbial populations and communities living on plants, in particular on leaves (the phyllosphere), and on quantifying the importance of plant-associated microbes for plant health and ecosystem function. Understanding plant-microbe associations has important applications in forestry and agriculture. Increasingly, we use combined sequencing-based and culturing-based approaches to quantify microbial diversity that make it possible to move beyond quantifying patterns of diversity, towards direct tests of the causality of links between microbial diversity and host and ecosystem function. The equipment will make it possible for numerous users to rapidly quantify microbial biodiversity in thousands of samples collected from different environments, and to grow microbes from these habitats in the lab to allow experiments to understand their ecology, evolution, and interactions with each other, with their hosts, and with the environment. The equipment will greatly accelerate the pace at which we can quantify microbial biodiversity. This will lead to key insights into how we can manage and protect microbial biodiversity to help humans and ecosystems adapt to a changing climate. It will also make it possible to train students and researchers in cutting--edge methods in molecular biology, a skill set that is in high demand in biodiversity and health research and industry within Canada and globally.