Crowdfunding the Azolla fern genome project: a grassroots approach

GigaScience

Kathleen M Pryer¹  Fay-Wei Li¹ 

[1] Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA

关键词: Crowdfunding;    Symbiosis;    Social media;    Op-ed;    Nostoc;    Nitrogen fixation;    Genome sequencing;    Fern;    Cyanobacteria;    Azolla;   

Others  :  1118586
DOI  :  10.1186/2047-217X-3-16

 received in 2014-08-12, accepted in 2014-09-18,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Much of science progresses within the tight boundaries of what is often seen as a “black box”. Though familiar to funding agencies, researchers and the academic journals they publish in, it is an entity that outsiders rarely get to peek into. Crowdfunding is a novel means that allows the public to participate in, as well as to support and witness advancements in science. Here we describe our recent crowdfunding efforts to sequence the Azolla genome, a little fern with massive green potential. Crowdfunding is a worthy platform not only for obtaining seed money for exploratory research, but also for engaging directly with the general public as a rewarding form of outreach.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Li and Pryer; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]Sessa EB, Banks JA, Barker MS, Der JP, Duffy AM, Graham SW, Hasebe M, Langdale J, Li F-W, Marchant DB, Pryer KM, Rothfels CJ, Roux SJ, Salmi ML, Sigel EM, Soltis DE, Soltis PS, Stevenson DW, Wolf PG: Between two fern genomes. GigaScience 2014, 3:15. BioMed Central Full Text
• [2]Li J-Y, Wang J, Zeigler RS: The 3,000 rice genomes project: new opportunities and challenges for future rice research. GigaScience 2014, 3:8. BioMed Central Full Text
• [3]Wagner GM: Azolla: a review of its biology and utilization. Bot Rev 1997, 63:1-26.
• [4]Brouwer P, Bräutigam A, Külahoglu C, Tazelaar AOE, Kurz S, Nierop KGJ, van der Werf A, Weber APM, Schluepmann H: Azolla domestication towards a biobased economy? New Phytol 2014, 202:1069-1082.
• [5]Sood A, Uniyal PL, Prasanna R, Ahluwalia AS: Phytoremediation potential of aquatic macrophyte, Azolla. AMBIO 2011, 41:122-137.
• [6]Muradov N, Taha M, Miranda AF, Kadali K, Gujar A, Rochfort S, Stevenson T, Ball AS, Mouradov A: Dual application of duckweed and Azolla plants for wastewater treatment and renewable fuels and petrochemicals production. Biotechnol Biofuels 2014, 7:30. BioMed Central Full Text
• [7]Brinkhuis H, Schouten S, Collinson ME, Sluijs A, Damsté JSS, Dickens GR, Huber M, Cronin TM, Onodera J, Takahashi K, Bujak JP, Stein R, van der Burgh J, Eldrett JS, Harding IC, Lotter AF, Sangiorgi F, Cittert HVK-V, de Leeuw JW, Matthiessen J, Backman J, Moran K, the Expedition 302 Scientists: Episodic fresh surface waters in the Eocene Arctic Ocean. Nature 2006, 441:606-609.
• [8]Speelman EN, van Kempen MML, Barke J, Brinkhuis H, Reichart G-J, Smolders AJP, Roelofs JGM, Sangiorgi F, de Leeuw JW, Lotter AF, Sinninghe Damste JS: The Eocene Arctic Azolla bloom: environmental conditions, productivity and carbon drawdown. Geobiology 2009, 7:155-170.
• [9]Pryer KM, Schneider H, Zimmer EA, Banks JA: Deciding among green plants for whole genome studies. Trends Plant Sci 2002, 7:550-554.
• [10]Ran L, Larsson J, Vigil-Stenman T, Nylander JAA, Ininbergs K, Zheng W-W, Lapidus A, Lowry S, Haselkorn R, Bergman B: Genome erosion in a nitrogen-fixing vertically transmitted endosymbiotic multicellular cyanobacterium. PLoS One 2010, 5:e11486.
• [11]Lindblad P, Bergman B, Nierzwicki-Bauer SA: Immunocytochemical localization of nitrogenase in bacteria symbiotically associated with Azolla spp. Appl Environ Microbiol 1991, 57:3637-3640.
• [12]Azolla, a Little Fern with Massive Green Potential. https://experiment.com/projects/azolla-a-little-fern-with-massive-green-potential webcite
• [13]Azolla Genome Project in the News. http://www.azollagenome.net/in-the-news.html webcite