For nearly a century, researchers have studied the pond-dwelling ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena, making numerous fundamental discoveries in cell and molecular biology, including two that won Nobel prizes. To maintain its position as a premier model organism, Tetrahymena needs well-developed and maintained genomic resources. Remarkably, Tetrahymena houses two distinct nuclei with distinct genomes 'one germline and one somatic' within its single cell. Over five years ago, the somatic genome was sequenced and annotated, revealing about 25,000 genes. Although the data have been invaluable to Tetrahymena researchers, the genome assembly and many of the gene models are flawed or incomplete (as is typical of such draft-level projects). Using transcriptomic and comparative genomic data obtained from other sources, this project will perform much needed repairs to the essential genomic resources. In addition, the germline genome sequence has just now become available. This project will explore the structure of the germline genome, how it is related to the somatic genome to which it gives rise in development , and ways in which both genomes have changed over the course of evolution.
Broader Impact: These data will be used to update and enhance the resources and functionalities of the Tetrahymena Genome Database, serving a wide community of researchers and thus providing a strong broader impact to the cyber-infrastructure of science. This community also takes very seriously its commitment to the integration of research and education. The project will provide laboratory and bioinformatic experience to graduate and undergraduate students. In partnership with the Ciliate Genomics Consortium, a network of faculty and students at diverse colleges and universities, the project will establish a self-sustaining program to continually update Tetrahymena's genomic resources while empowering students by engaging them in original and valuable research.
