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• Basic Research
• Microbial Diversity
• Coastal Ecology
• Neuroscience

Microbial Diversity and Evolution

Microbes (bacteria, archea and eukarya) are single celled organisms. (For simplicity of discussion here, we will include viruses in this group, although technically they may not belong.) From the time of origin of life on Earth, perhaps 3.5 billion years ago, until about 900 million years ago when the first multicellular organisms arose, all life was microbial. It stands to reason therefore, that if one wants to piece together what happened in those first 2.5 billion years of evolution—many of the most interesting chapters of the story—one must study microbes. And microbes still rule the planet: the vast majority of the diversity of life on Earth today is microbial. Microbes occupy every possible niche, from the high atmosphere to the deep ocean and the Earth’s crust, including many regions that cannot yet be accessed for study. Biologists have known these facts for a long time, but very recently they have come to realize that their previous estimate of microbial diversity has been far, far too low.

Why the gross underestimate? Traditional (i.e. twentieth century) analytical techniques required that microbes first be cultured in the laboratory. Organisms that could not be readily cultured were therefore not studied at all unless they posed some significant known threat to human health or commerce. Now however, thanks to the recent advent of industrial-strength molecular sequencing and analysis technology, it is possible to collect samples from the environment and survey their diversity directly without having to culture them. This new branch of science is known as metagenomics. Metagenomic surveys have revealed that traditional culture-based methods have overlooked more than 99% of the microbes that inhabit the Earth today.

Clearly this is an exciting and opportune time to be studying microbes. It has all the hallmarks of a revolutionary scientific era—new techniques, new phenomena, the need for new theories—so the Tula Foundation is supporting basic research in the field, trusting that exploration will yield exciting discoveries. We have chosen to help stimulate more research in this area at two institutions that are already world leaders in the field, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In both cases we first sat down directly with the researchers, and asked them to design a program and funding formula that was the most efficient from their perspective. In both cases we subsequently received great support from the respective university administrations and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), who now has a national program in Integrated Microbial Biodiversity, in which UBC and Dalhousie are leading players.

Microbial Diversity & Evolution at UBC

The Tula Foundation has agreed to provide $7 million over several years to support the founding of the Centre for Microbial Diversity and Evolution (CMDE) at the University of British Columbia.

The stated mission of the UBC CMDE is:

to advance our understanding of living systems by supporting basic research into fundamental questions about the diversity, interrelationships and evolutionary histories of microbial life forms. The CMDE promotes broad-scale comparative approaches that integrate exploratory and hypothesis-driven research on bacteria, archaeans, eukaryotes and viruses. The training of research personnel in the CMDE must reflect high standards of excellence and will incorporate one or several of the following themes: molecular evolution, comparative genomics, phylogenetics, evolutionary morphology, systematics, metagenomics and ecosystem function.

Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics at Dalhousie

The Tula Foundation has agreed to provide over $3 million over several years to support the founding of the Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics (CGEB) at Dalhousie University.

Different research groups will tackle the subject area of microbial diversity with different tools, depending upon their respective expertise. The CGEB at Dalhousie has chosen to tackle the problem of trying to make sense of all the data that will be generated by sequence analysis.

From the CGEB website:

an overarching research goal of the Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics (CGEB) is to elucidate how genomic and proteomic data from diverse microbes can best be harnessed to understand the patterns of biodiversity and the evolutionary processes by which this diversity was generated.

The Centre for Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Bioinformatics (CGEB) at Dalhousie University is committed to furthering these scientific goals in the Faculties of Medicine, Science and Computer Science. Although microbial diversity is at the heart of many of our research activities, our work spans computational biology, computer science, statistical modeling and comparative genomics, with a strong focus on method and theory. We are united by the common goal of using genomic information to elucidate evolutionary patterns and processes: the pathways by which microbial organisms have diversified over the last 3.5 billion years of Earth's history and through which they continue to shape the global environment. Only through the integration of experimental genomic approaches and sophisticated bioinformatic modeling will we be able to achieve this goal.