Project: From Signatures of Translational Regulation to Outcomes of Natural Selection: Evolution of Marine Microbes in Changing Environments

Physiological responses of marine microorganisms to environmental conditions are key drivers of both the ecology and evolution of microbial communities and the biogeochemistry of the world's oceans. Marine bacteria respond to fluctuating environmental conditions with both transcriptional and translation regulation. While the study of transcriptional regulation in marine microbial communities has gained traction through the application of metatranscriptomics, still relatively little is understood about how marine microbial populations utilize translational regulation to shape protein synthesis.

Translational regulation through transfer RNAs (tRNAs) allows cells to regulate gene expression beyond transcription and yield proteins that are not encoded by the genome. Due to the central role of tRNAs in protein synthesis, the characterization of tRNA modifications and tRNA abundances offer direct insights into translational processes. However, molecular and computational challenges have limited the capacity to conduct investigations of tRNAs in naturally occurring microbial habitats. Here we apply high-throughput sequencing of tRNAs collected from surface ocean marine microbial communities to observe epi-changes in translational regulation in response to changing ocean conditions. These metaepitranscriptomic data are collected in tandem with metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data as well as measures of the physical, chemical, and biological ocean conditions. Through this integrated dataset, we aim to develop new computational approaches to analyze high-throughput transfer RNA sequencing data and use these approaches to gain new insights into the ecology and environmental responses of major marine populations.