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Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research (2021)

Chapter: 3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt

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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
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3
Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt

Biological understanding of adaptations of polar organisms to cold environments, and of their resilience to climate change, is poised for fundamental breakthroughs based on the application of “omics” technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, metabolomics, and others). Frontiers in Polar Biology in the Genomic Era (NRC, 2003) first endorsed the utility of omics to explore major biological problems of the polar regions. According to that report, “these new technologies will allow us to examine polar biological questions of unprecedented scope and to do so with extraordinary depth and precision.”

As described in Chapter 1, the 2015 Strategic Report (NASEM, 2015) identified “How do Antarctic biota evolve and adapt to the changing environment? Decoding the genomic and transcriptomic bases of biological adaptation” as Strategic Priority II, outlining three key areas under Priority II that were primed for transformational advances:

  1. Antarctic biodiversity and species interactions as an indication of their evolutionary potential,
  2. Species’ functional responses to the changing Antarctic environment as a measure of their phenotypic plasticity, and
  3. Evolutionary cold adaptation/specialization and future evolutionary and adaptive potential.

Priority II remains a vital area of research as Southern Ocean warming, sea ice loss, and acidification rapidly alter habitat conditions, leading to organismal and ecological adaptation that will create “winners and losers” among species (Somero, 2010). Additionally, organismal range changes and introduction of invasive taxa are creating novel interactions and altering selective pressures on Antarctic biota (Smith et al., 2012; Fraser et al., 2018). Identifying key Antarctic organisms and assemblages, and their underlying genome-encoded capacities that influence ecosystem function, is equally important in the context of environmental change. Powerful omics technologies can be brought to bear to better understand these problems.

To facilitate these endeavors, NASEM (2015) envisioned an Antarctic Genomics Initiative, including a coordinated pulse of activity with the goal of decoding the genomic and functional bases of organismal adaptation in a changing environment across a range of taxa. The report envisioned calls for proposals that focused on sequencing existing samples, acquisition of new samples, and field

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
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experimentation. This chapter reviews progress toward this strategic priority and identifies key implementation challenges and opportunities to overcome those challenges.

EVALUATION OF PROGRESS

To date, the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Office of Polar Programs (OPP) has funded a variety of exciting and fruitful research endeavors in this area, but its approach to Priority II (not considering COVID-19-related impacts) falls short of the 2015 NASEM report’s vision, and the full potential has yet to be realized.

Promotion of Research Priority

NSF first responded to Priority II in the 2016 OPP Program Solicitation for Antarctic Research (NSF 16-541), in which one of three emphasis areas focused on evolution and adaptation. The program solicitation requested “coordinated efforts to understand genomes and transcriptomes of key species as well as metagenomes and transcriptomes from environmental samples from ice sheets, lakes, and oceans that advance an understanding of the bases of biological adaptation and response by Antarctic organisms and ecosystems.” However, proposals requiring new fieldwork resources, including those addressing the three NASEM (2015) priorities, were discouraged for spring 2016 submission due to pre-existing OPP commitments. As also discussed in Chapter 2, new NSF investments in field resources were not anticipated until the 2018-2019 austral summer field season. Rather, proposals for modeling, data analysis, and community planning to implement the priority areas were encouraged. Thus, initial promotion and implementation of this research priority was constrained by OPP. Program solicitations from 2017 to the present, which varied in the extent to which they presented Antarctic Sciences subprograms, reiterated the evolution and adaptation emphasis area. Most Antarctic Sciences solicitations since 2016 included a standard call for workshops and research coordination activities except NSF 18-530, which called for “Research Coordination Networks (RCNs) that will significantly advance robustness and accessibility of ‘omics information and analysis of data that will lead to greater synthesis” in support of Priority II.

In early 2019, OPP issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” (NSF 19-045, Genetic Underpinnings for Life in Antarctica or ANT-LIA) to advance Priority II, which encouraged Antarctic research focused on “understanding the genetic underpinnings of organismal adaptations to their current environment and ways in which extant biota and ecosystems respond to changing conditions over different spatial and temporal scales.” The letter emphasized integration of Priority II goals with three of NSF’s 10 Big Ideas: Understanding the Rules of Life, Harnessing the

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

Data Revolution, and Convergent Research.1 The Dear Colleague Letter emphasized hypothesis-driven analyses at the level of gene function, rather than the NASEM (2015) call for comprehensive and comparative decoding of the genomic and transcriptomic bases of organismal adaptation. The Dear Colleague Letter’s emphasis on “genetics” led some scientists to assume that their research would not be considered and that aspects of genomic advances and infrastructure development highlighted in NASEM (2015) were not part of the call. Genetics and genomics are not synonymous, and many organisms that cannot be analyzed genetically are nonetheless amenable to genomic analysis and other omics technologies that yield important biological insights. Furthermore, the Dear Colleague Letter specifically excluded proposals that “simply describe species presence or construct genomes,” in contrast to the 2015 report, which stated “the fundamental unexplored frontier is the genomic information encoded within Antarctic organisms.” Sequences from viruses to mammals are often required to reveal genetic diversity prior to understanding functional and evolutionary implications. Therefore, the sequencing of genomes from Antarctic organisms is essential data infrastructure to advance meaningful phylogenomic evolutionary hypotheses for addressing Priority II. Many fields within the life sciences, including medicine and biotechnology (Albertson et al., 2009), will benefit from comprehensive efforts to sequence genomes across the breadth of Antarctic life.

Based on an information gathering session convened by the committee, the Dear Colleague Letter apparently did not reach, or attract the attention of, many in this research community. More than half of the participants responded that they were unaware of the Dear Colleague Letter. Some participants were unsure if ANT-LIA is still seeking proposals more than 2 years after the release of the letter. Three ANT-LIA awards have been made since the 2019 Dear Colleague Letter—one each in microbial, invertebrate, and vertebrate systems.

Science Funding

Based on NSF analyses of funding for years 2016 to 2020, approximately $4 million/year on average was allocated toward Priority II research. This estimate was based on a detailed classification and analysis by NSF that estimated the percentage of each project’s budget used for incorporation of genomic approaches to address Priority II–related questions. Based on NSF analysis, Priority II funding represented 25 percent of the budget for the Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems (AOE) Program between 2016 and 2020 and 5.6 percent of the total Antarctic Sciences research budget. An additional 13 percent of the AOE budget was estimated to have been awarded for targeted gene surveys that, although tangential, do not directly address the objectives in Priority II.

To understand long-term trends in funding, the committee reviewed other previously provided data from NSF on OPP-funded proposals from 2011 to 2020. The

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1 See https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
Image
FIGURE 3-1 Total funding (top) and numbers of funded projects (bottom) that address Priority II either fully or in part. The funding plot reflects the total sum of project awards, rather than a fractional estimate of project funding that addressed Priority II. The figures include National Science Foundation designations for Priority II projects and the committee’s stricter classification. NSF also provided a refined estimate of fractional funding for Priority II for 2016-2020, as described in the text.
NOTES: Collaborative projects funded across more than one institution were counted as a single project. Funding for the large, multi-investigator interdisciplinary Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) project was allocated on a yearly basis, starting in 2016.
SOURCE: Project funding data from Paul Cutler, NSF, personal communication, 2020.
Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

data included NSF classifications of those projects that addressed Priority II objectives either fully or in part. The committee understood that these data were not as precise as those described in the prior paragraph, but these data provided long-term trends and the opportunity for the committee to evaluate projects that applied omics technologies to Priority II goals based on a review of publicly available information (e.g., titles, abstracts).2 The committee deemed that NSF’s interpretation of “genomic” or “omics” approaches was more expansive than typically understood by life science researchers; therefore, the committee also analyzed the 2011-2020 data using more stringent criteria for assessing whether awards conformed to Priority II (see Figure 3-1). Projects relying solely on single-nucleotide polymorphism mapping of population genetics or limited gene surveys were excluded. In this analysis, the committee did not attempt to estimate the percentage of individual project funds addressing Priority II goals.

Based on the committee’s classifications, NSF funding support for Priority II increased from an average of $2 million/year (2011-2015) to $4 million/year (2016-2020). The number of funded projects also increased, from an average of 3.8 projects/year in 2011-2015 to 6.2 projects/year in 2016-2020. This increase in funding was less evident when NSF’s original classifications were used, likely because NSF’s broader definition of genomics blurred the distinction between molecular and genetic research, which has long been supported by the AOE program, and genomics and omics research, which was the emphasis of the 2015 NASEM report. Because omics research has rapidly increased over the past 10 years, the committee was not able to parse the extent to which the increased OPP funding of Antarctic omics research reflected greater interest in, and use of, these technologies by investigators versus a concerted effort by OPP to address Priority II.

Progress Toward Scientific Goals

Genomic and transcriptomic research supported by OPP since release of the 2015 Strategic Report has begun to address each of the three Priority II emphases: Antarctic biodiversity and interactions indicating evolutionary potential (II.i); species functional responses to changing environment (II.ii); and evolutionary cold adaptation/specialization and adaptive potential (II.iii). However, coverage of the emphases, of taxa, and of environments appears to be inconsistent and unorganized. Microbial omics research, covering targeted taxa or diverse communities of phytoplankton, algae, protists, bacteria, and viruses, have contributed to emphases II.i-II.iii. Fish genomes and transcriptomes are also advancing emphases II.i-II.iii, but omics efforts for other vertebrate taxa, including birds and mammals, are lacking. Omics studies of invertebrate species are contributing to areas II.i-II.iii but are severely underrepresented given their importance. To date, most omics work has

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2 Text was added after a prepublication version was provided to NSF to clarify the committee’s use of NSF data.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

focused on species and consortia from marine environments, although omics studies of lakes, subglacial lakes, and terrestrial soils are also under way. NSF support for Priority II research has led to significant scientific achievements in some areas (see Box 3-1) but the pace of progress has been slow relative to the transformative advances envisioned by the 2015 Strategic Vision report. NASEM (2015) recommended an Antarctic Genomics Initiative, “inclusive of genomes and transcriptomes of individual species and species assemblages,” that would stimulate research on the three major goals delineated under Priority II. The Antarctic Genomics Initiative has yet to be realized due to numerous reasons, including the broad scope of Priority II in the context of organismal diversity and the limitations in OPP resources. Priority II implementation challenges are discussed in more detail later in the chapter. Progress has been driven by individual investigators and their international collaborators, rather than by an overarching, community-generated strategic vision enabled by OPP (see Figure 3-2). Without a well-organized Antarctic Genomics Initiative, research investments have fallen short of their potential. Lack of coordinated collection of omics data to community-defined standards can lead to incomplete genomes and transcriptomes that are of little value in a comparative sense.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

Since the NASEM (2015) report was released, new genome sequencing platforms and advances in proteomics, epigenomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics have vastly increased the potential to explore polar biology. New technologies bring powerful, precise, and innovative tools to bear on principles of organismal evolution and adaptation to Antarctic environments and on Antarctic biotic influences on ecosystem processes (e.g., Williams et al., 2012). In 2015, a “complete” eukaryotic genome consisted of thousands of assembled scaffolds (each consisting of genome sequences separated by gaps of known length) with an equivalent number of sequence gaps, but now chromosome-level and error-free assemblies are the new norm (Rhie et al., 2021). Likewise, accessing Antarctic microbial metagenome assembled genomes or single amplified genomes is now possible (e.g., Zaikova et al., 2019).

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY AND PARTNERSHIPS

The U.S. Antarctic biology community has yet to organize itself to develop large-scale genome initiatives that are organized around phylogenetically informed

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
Image
FIGURE 3-2 Representative Antarctic organisms or assemblages whose genomes and/or transcriptomes have contributed to understanding diversity and evolutionary adaptation. Paleoalgal mats (a) in the McMurdo Dry Valleys shed light on long-term microbial survival. The diatoms Corethron pennatum (b) and Fragilariopsis kerguelensis (c) reveal physiology related to seasonal adaptation and lipid storage. Apodomenia enigmatica (d), identified using transcriptomics, represents a new family of aplacophoran molluscs endemic to the Antarctic. Studies of the shelled pteropod Limacina helicina (e) underscore the sensitivity of calcification processes to Southern Ocean acidification. Genomic evolution of antifreeze glycoproteins and other cold-adaptive traits in high-latitude Antarctic notothenioid fishes was demonstrated by comparison of the Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni (f) and the sub-Antarctic Falklands mullet/Patagonian robalo Eleginops maclovinus.
SOURCES: (a) Zaikova et al., 2019; (b) Marina Montresor, SZN / Alfred Wegener Institute; (c) Cefarelli et al., 2010; (d) Kevin Concot; (e) Gretchen Hofmann courtesy of NSF; (f) Davis “Seal” cam courtesy of NSF; (g) H. William Detrich, committee member; (a) and (d) Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0; (c) Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.
Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

organismal groups and assemblages. To date, most Priority II–related projects appear to have been funded in response to proposals submitted by individual investigators or by small collaborative groups, with limited interactions with experienced omics research groups, many of which are not yet vested in Antarctic biology.

The 2019 Dear Colleague Letter called for proposals to fund conferences that would “advance understanding of how Antarctic biota evolve and adapt to unique and ever-changing Antarctic environments.” One collaborative research project, which included a training workshop, has been funded. Two other workshops related to Priority II were funded3 between 2017 and 2019. Research Coordination Networks (RCNs) and Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) projects help NSF support bold, interdisciplinary activities that promise transformational advances, but such efforts have not been funded under Priority II since 2016.

Some principal investigators have benefited from community pipelines for microbial genomics or transcriptomics programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Joint Genome Institute4 and the Moore Foundation, although there are no formal NSF partnerships with these programs. Researchers have also partnered individually with large community-driven initiatives, such as the Earth BioGenome Project and the Vertebrate Genomes Project, but interactions between Antarctic researchers and these large-scale initiatives have not often been fostered at either the community or agency level.

Chapter 6 of this report also addresses cross-cutting issues related to community building and research partnerships.

KEY IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES

Input from community stakeholders indicated a large and active interest in using omics technologies to understand how Antarctic organisms evolve and adapt, but several barriers hinder advancement of this priority area. Implementation challenges include messaging; technology and standards; access to samples, data, and research facilities; and community building.

Messaging and Support for Priority II

Clear and effective communication by OPP to its scientific constituency constitutes a critical implementation challenge with respect to Priority II. Short

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3 These workshops were (1) Best Practices for Using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Datasets to Determine Robust Evidence of Positive Selection and Convergent Evolution of Polar Organisms and (2) Antarctic Ecosystem Research Following Ice Shelf Collapse and Iceberg Calving Events.

4 See https://jgi.doe.gov.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

descriptions of Priority II goals were provided in Antarctic Sciences program solicitations starting in 2016, and the 2019 Dear Colleague Letter gave a more detailed interpretation of priority objectives. However, as discussed previously in this chapter, the substance of the Dear Colleague Letter was different than the intent of the 2015 Strategic report, which led to confusion in the community with respect to what science (e.g., genetics versus genomics) was appropriate to propose under Priority II.

Implementation of the 2015 Strategic Plan across 10 years is challenging in the context of programmatic leadership that includes long-term staff and academic rotators appointed to two 4-year terms. Both the community and the committee noted that Priority II suffered from unclear and inconsistent messaging by AOE Program Officers regarding research foci.

NASEM (2015) called for “large-scale priority research initiatives,” but OPP has not issued a solicitation for commensurate Priority II proposals. The research community interpreted messaging from NSF that genomic research proposals should be modest in scope. The reality is that omics research works best when scaled as large collaborations (Rhie et al., 2021), rather than the traditional OPP research model based on individual investigators or small teams.

To elucidate the genomic and phenotypic mechanisms that have allowed, and will continue to allow, Antarctic biota to evolve and adapt in a changing Antarctic environment, researchers will need to advance interdisciplinary collaborative approaches. Moreover, understanding broader patterns and common mechanisms shared across taxa requires study of multiple organismal lineages. Each lineage, whether a given microbe, alga, sea urchin, fish, or bird, will illustrate unique evolutionary adaptions and mechanisms. Resolution of larger and more inclusive patterns and genomic mechanisms requires comparison across taxa. To meet the vision of NASEM (2015), researchers, who are largely taxonomically siloed at present, will need to collaborate to build genomic infrastructure and resources for multiple organismal groups and assemblages. Priority II has largely been funded to date by OPP resources; to attain the vision described in the NASEM 2015 report within the next 5 years, significant additional resources and collaborative partnerships would be necessary (discussed later in this chapter).

Omics Technologies, Standards, and Data Access

Technological innovations have made sequencing a genome vastly more affordable compared to costs in 2015, but simultaneously the bar has been raised with respect to sequence coverage and depth, and sequence connectivity (minimization of gaps, chromosome-level assembly) to achieve a “reference” genome (Rhie et al., 2021). The goals and expectations for Priority II science will need to evolve to reflect the rapid advancements in omics technologies.

NASEM (2015) focused on comparative, sequence-based genomic and transcriptomic efforts to understand evolutionary adaptations to the Antarctic

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

environment. However, most researchers in the Antarctic biology community lack partnerships with the dedicated omics facilities and resources that introduce researchers, including those at early-career stages, to strategies and methods and promote access to standard yet evolving technologies. Economies of scale are being lost by not partnering with facilities that specialize in sequencing, informatic, or other omics services.

Multiple, rapidly changing bioinformatic platforms and research strategies in omics pose the danger that data from related studies may not be intercomparable, thereby precluding integration of results and interpretation. Developing sets of standards that preserve data comparability and reuse is challenging because the standards must also evolve. Protocol and data standardization are significant issues that need to be addressed to facilitate progress in omics-based research. Furthermore, consistent application of rigorous standards across organismal groups varies. The research communities that study microbes and vertebrates have better-developed standards than communities that study other organismal groups, but there is considerable room to advance standards in all research areas.

Beyond data standards, access to Antarctic omics datasets and associated contextual information is currently an onerous task, mostly limited to literature or targeted National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) searches. Advances in data management and accessibility are, therefore, needed to accelerate Priority II research.

Accessing Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems for Omics Research

Contemporary omics investigations are informed by reference genomes from organisms of interest that underpin hypothesis generation and testing and, for eukaryotes,5 are often conducted using “model” organisms (e.g., mouse, zebrafish, fruit fly), for which significant genomic infrastructure has been developed. Across the spectrum of life, the number and quality of genomes and transcriptomes from Antarctic species pale in comparison to those from lower-latitude organisms. However, NSF-funded investigators, have produced genomes and/or transcriptomes for several Antarctic organisms (see Figure 3-2), although for eukaryotes, international collaborators have often led the way.

As the NASEM (2015) report recognized, researchers need to have access to organisms or organismal products, and access to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Thus, NASEM (2015) proposed an approach to omics work that included three phases: (1) sequencing existing samples, (2) acquisition of new samples, and (3) field experimentation. Since the 2015 report was written, omics technologies have advanced considerably, supported by parallel technological developments in organismal culturing, husbandry, cell culture, and tissue banks. Most of these parallel technologies have yet to be applied to Antarctic species. In this section, the

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5 Eukaryotes include all living organisms except eubacteria and archaebacteria. The eukaryotic cell possesses a distinct nucleus and contains DNA in the form of chromosomes.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

committee highlights challenges in access to organisms and other ecosystem information necessary to advance Priority II research.

Sampling Antarctic organisms and assemblages for omics research is difficult and expensive. The prevailing model for NSF-funded research in Antarctica involves investigators collecting organisms during short field seasons, followed by return of samples to the United States for analysis. Researchers may require multiple seasons in the field to obtain appropriate datasets, and retrograde transport can be slow with the potential for compromised temperature control. The lack of efficiency in this approach delays research progress and stifles innovation and creativity. NASEM (2015) suggested that genomic research could begin with samples collected during previous Antarctic field seasons. This committee was not able to determine the extent to which previously collected samples were used in new omics projects, and NSF did not promote sample sharing until recently. However, NSF’s recent call for reuse of samples and data (Dear Colleague Letter, NSF DCL 21-041) across all disciplines should open these resources to the community, and new NSF data sharing policies will promote genome sciences. OPP requires that data and metadata be placed in or linked from the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) Data Center6 within 3 years of collection, providing a unified, searchable site for data from all NSF Antarctic-Sciences–funded research. NSF indicated to this committee that it began enforcing its data sharing policies in 2019 to ensure better dissemination of research by all awardees. Antarctic samples are only of value if they are well curated, georeferenced with proper associated metadata, and properly stored in biological sample collections. Efforts to open sample collections and to aggregate data and release will pay forward to the community the products of past NSF investment in polar biology.

At the time the 2015 report was written, massively parallel, short-read sequencing followed by computational assembly was the primary sequencing strategy. Since then, long-read sequencing platforms, capable of producing continuous sequences of many thousands of nucleotides from single DNA molecules, have begun to supplant the short-read platforms, or the two are used in conjunction. Additionally, specialized sequencing methods enable detection of transcriptionally active genomic DNA (ATAC-seq) or transcriptionally silenced chromosomal regions (DNA methylation). Gene editing technology (CRISPR/Cas97) can be used to study functional traits at the mechanistic level. Tissue specimens stored long term in a −80°C freezer might, or might not, yield DNA suitable for such analyses. Better DNA sources include cells in culture or tissues from live specimens. Regrettably, the infrastructure to maintain cell cultures and living Antarctic macroorganisms at U.S. institutions is almost nonexistent.

“Acquisition of new samples” was a point of emphasis for the 2015 report to facilitate genomics-enabled inquiries for which existing samples are lacking or

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6 See https://www.usap-dc.org/home.

7 Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) using CRISPR-associated protein 9.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

inappropriate (e.g., seasonal environmental DNA samples). Collection of species is restricted by seasonal accessibility to stations and/or regions by vessel or field camp support, and most research occurs during the Austral summer. Critical information on life history strategies, including reproductive cycles, is wanting for most Antarctic organisms. The few studies that have been conducted over the annual cycle in the Antarctic have revealed dramatic shifts in biological structure and function (e.g., Murray and Grzymski, 2007; Ghiglione and Murray, 2012; Williams et al., 2012).

As described for Priority I, research vessel support is also of paramount importance to the success of Priority II, specifically with respect to acquisition of new samples of marine organisms and ecosystems. Prioritization of research vessels to specific projects (e.g., Nathaniel B. Palmer to the Thwaites region [see Chapter 2], Laurence M. Gould to annual Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research cruises at the height of the austral summer) necessarily constrains the organismal sampling needed to advance Priority II marine research to shoulder seasons, whether these are appropriate to research objectives or not. Given the limited ice-breaking capabilities of both vessels (see Box 1-2), transit to southerly regions within the Weddell, Bellingshausen, or Ross seas is not possible during these shoulder seasons. Furthermore, opportunities to sample organisms and ecosystems in eastern Antarctic waters are restricted by limitations on vessel durations at sea. Should the USAP downgrade to a single vessel, Priority II science would be severely compromised (NSF OPP Advisory Committee, 2019). The Antarctic biology community also voiced concerns that ship resources are not always used to their full potential. For example, deployment of vessels with small science groups (well below berth capacity) leads to missed research opportunities, and transit and resupply cruises often do not take full advantage of sampling opportunities.

Some essential shipboard technologies relevant to Priority II are well maintained and have a track record of success (e.g., seafloor mapping, benthic trawls, midwater trawls, aquarium facilities, and inflatable boat deployments). However, in situ observation capabilities via autonomous underwater vehicle and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployments are limited, and collection of delicate organisms impossible with Laurence M. Gould resources. Accessing organismal associations in the environment is difficult without such technologies. Precision collection capabilities are paramount for maintaining host–microbe relationships, and many soft-bodied organisms central to the Antarctic marine ecosystem (e.g., salps, soft corals, sea squirts) require gentle collection methods.

To address the three Priority II science areas identified in the 2015 Strategic Report, measurement of environmental parameters in conjunction with experimental work in the field is often critical to testing hypotheses and is the basis of ecological science. Although this aspect of omics research was not extensively developed in the NASEM (2015) report, the present committee judges that concurrent measurements of dynamic Antarctic environments are crucial because they provide the context for understanding the omics of organisms and assemblages. To interpret the phenotypic plasticity of Antarctic life, concomitant long-term data on changing marine and terrestrial environments must be acquired. Similarly,

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

environmental context is necessary to understand the life-history stages of diverse marine organisms and to capture the spatiotemporal framework of life and ecosystem processes.

Outdoor-based or laboratory simulated experimental systems (mesocosms) for both marine and terrestrial ecosystems provide a bridge to connect experimental, laboratory-based manipulations of organisms and organismal omics responses to environmental stimuli and biological interactions. Even though they are “meso,” these facilities can have large footprints depending on the study, such that their availability is severely limited at both McMurdo and Palmer stations. For example, when one considers that marine field incubations may manipulate temperature, pH, salinity, and combinations thereof, with replication and other experimental design constraints, the importance of expanded support for mesocosm facilities is clear.

The lack of modern ROVs and the limited ice capabilities of the ships greatly restrict field-based experimentation on Antarctic marine biota. Currently, marine field-based experiments are limited to SCUBA depths (from Palmer Station, McMurdo Station, or the ships) or water sampling and established moorings. Advanced ROV capabilities would open a range of experimental approaches at a variety of depths.

Short field seasons and the inability to process omics data on site prevent experimental results from informing next-step studies in real time. Affordable and easy-to-maintain omics technologies, including portable genome sequencers, are currently not available or supported at field stations or onboard research vessels. Thus, spatial and temporal disconnects between organismal experimentation and omics-informed analyses in the field are retarding advances in Priority II research.

Community

The current community of researchers who have potential interest in Priority II are broadly distributed across the life sciences, which inhibits organization, collaboration, and coalescence around a shared vision of future research priorities. The committee discussed why the Antarctic biological community and, more specifically, the community of those using omics tools in the Antarctic, were not more cohesive and focused on shared themes. One issue that arose repeatedly was the lack of a centralized entity to assist community organization. Because differing cohorts of Antarctic researchers participate in numerous organizations (e.g., the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research [SCAR], the American Geophysical Union, the Association for Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology International Polar and Alpine Microbiology Conference, and the American Society for Microbiology), generating a critical mass of principal investigators to promote Antarctic omics research in any given organization is extremely difficult. Thus, the

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

community interacts with NSF at the level of the individual investigator rather than with a single, united “voice.”

OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE PROGRESS

With input from omics researchers within and outside of Antarctic science, the committee identified opportunities through which NSF and the scientific community could address implementation challenges and improve progress in Priority II research.

Communication and Program Support

NSF could facilitate Priority II research through a targeted call for proposals that clearly outlines objectives, consistent with the spirit of NASEM (2015). Such calls should emphasize the use of omics to address adaptation and evolutionary biology. Developing a consistent communication strategy that articulates the commitment of OPP to Priority II science would stimulate engagement of the Antarctic biological research community. Furthermore, NSF should consider updating Priority II to include the contemporary definition of “inclusive omics” (inclusive of genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, epigenomics, etc.). For example, new approaches in metabolomics can now provide high-resolution information on both primary and secondary metabolites. By embracing contemporary omics technologies, NSF can motivate and stimulate cutting-edge Priority II research and simultaneously attract investigators new to Antarctic biological science. Because omics research and technology are advancing rapidly, NSF should interact closely with the community to understand the emerging opportunities and to ensure that NSF’s vision and messaging about the goals and expectations for Priority II continue to evolve.

A call for generating Antarctic genomic datasets that tap into the diversity of life found in the Antarctic, as recommended in NASEM (2015), remains a high priority. Foundational, phylogenetically informed genome “collections” would establish new Antarctic model organisms and organismal assemblages and set the stage for derived omics studies that embrace questions of adaptation and response. Historically, NSF has discouraged non-hypothesis-driven proposals, and the 2019 Dear Colleague Letter excluded genome-only projects. The committee encourages NSF to help develop this critical genomic data infrastructure needed to address Priority II while simultaneously engaging the community on future directions.

NSF could enhance consistency of messaging by creating a stronger bridge between program officers with short rotation terms to improve institutional memory in the context of a 10-year strategic plan. Continuity of program building and entrainment of the community in a long-term vision would foster the scientific advances envisioned in the 2015 report.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

Capacity Building

Omics technologies are advancing rapidly and have the potential to enable major breakthroughs across many taxonomic levels, organismal assemblages, and organism–ecosystem interactions. OPP should foster capacity building in the Antarctic life sciences community to enhance omics skills and to improve access to new technologies and resources (e.g., genomes, cell cultures, analysis centers, standard methods, and databases) by engaging the larger omics community. Specifically, efforts to train (and entrain) the next generation of early-career researchers in polar omics science are urgently needed. Community feedback recommended that OPP continue to support training opportunities such as the Integrative Biology and Adaptation of Antarctic Marine Organisms training course. NSF could also build capacity by supporting U.S.-based courses that focus on omics technologies and recruit polar biology researchers to participate in them.

There are also pressing needs to train Antarctic life scientists in bioinformatics. Bioinformatic resources and standards of practice are constantly changing and sometimes vary between research communities that focus on different taxonomic groups. NSF could develop programs to accelerate the acquisition of “big data” skills, information science, and cyberinfrastructure in support of Priority II science. OPP has funded at least one workshop that included bioinformatics training, although the committee recognizes that most bioinformatic pipelines needed by Antarctic researchers are being developed by other life sciences communities. Nonetheless, NSF activities that promote training and familiarity with bioinformatics would accelerate achievement of the Priority II vision.

Developing partnerships with third-party entities could facilitate technology access. Experience has shown that centralized infrastructure (e.g., sequencing centers and proteomic and computational facilities) provides high-quality, standardized output and economies of scale. Antarctic omics would likely benefit should OPP partner with such facilities to provide these services to its investigators.

Access and Operational Infrastructure

Access to field research sites is a challenge for all Antarctic science, but there are opportunities with respect to Priority II that can mitigate some of these problems. For example, some omics investigations may not require field access, at least by the investigator in “real time.” Advances in Priority II science (namely, advancing understanding of diversity and the evolutionary adaptation of Antarctic organisms and ecosystems) can, for at least some investigations, benefit from accessing archived sample collections. In these cases, sample archives, collections by other teams or USAP personnel may be able to offset costly field campaigns. There may also be opportunities to use autonomous sampling platforms for the Antarctic. The scientific community should work collaboratively with NSF to identify types of studies that would benefit from sample collection without investigator access to the

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

continent. Implementation of this strategy would require development of sample handling practices, metadata collection, management protocols, and infrastructure that provide recipients with assurance that samples meet appropriate standards.

Enhancing the ability to maintain Antarctic organisms (e.g., fish, invertebrates) and cultures in the United States would further increase the research capacity on Priority II questions, while reducing the logistics burden in Antarctica. Adult fish, fish embryos, krill, and other Antarctic organisms have been transported alive to U.S. laboratories (and to laboratories of other national Antarctic programs) and maintained for extended periods of study, but systematic efforts to husband Antarctic organisms are lacking. The purpose-built cold aquarium facility at Portland State University provides an example worthy of emulation. Furthermore, investments in cell culture and mariculture of Antarctic eukaryotes or in banking Antarctic microbes would accelerate Priority II research. Although such endeavors will not be feasible with all organisms, successes would enhance the study of evolution and physiological adaptation in the Antarctic. NSF OPP should consider how it can promote the development of tools and resources, perhaps working with the NSF Enabling Discovery through GEnomics (EDGE) program, for example.

Access to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean will continue to be required for new sample collection and experimentation to address Priority II questions. Geographical access to areas not reachable through USAP stations, field support, or ship support could be enhanced through international collaboration and partnerships. This is discussed further in Chapter 6. Enhancing access to the Antarctic throughout the year in locations beyond the Antarctic Peninsula is another key area for opportunity to advance progress on Priority II science. In a punctuated effort to expand seasonal access during the International Polar Year (2007-2008), an extended research season was supported in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Results of this effort led to numerous advances in knowledge of how organisms respond to the most severe conditions (e.g., Bertrand et al., 2011; Williams et al., 2012; Vick-Majors et al., 2014). If this level of logistical support could be provided on a more regular basis, the potential for increased understanding of Antarctic life and functional capabilities vis-à-vis the dramatically changing high-latitude environment is significant. Expanding seasonal opportunities for access also necessarily requires consideration of access by ice-capable, oceangoing vessels.

Targeted data repositories for Antarctic omics and associated environmental datasets are essential assets to Priority II science objectives; these two forms of information are often decoupled upon publication. Progress in this area has been initiated through the SCAR Biodiversity Informatics data portal.8 A seed project targeting Antarctic microbial diversity and genomics has been initiated in which environmental datasets can be uploaded and associated with microbial genomics data deposited in publicly accessible data bases.9 Enhancements along these lines could significantly foster communication and comparative genomics across the field of Antarctic life sciences.

___________________

8 See http://biodiversity.aq.

9 See http://biodiversity.aq/pola3r.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

In addition to enhancing physical and data access, there are other opportunities to accelerate progress in Priority II science areas related to equipment resources and infrastructure. Enhancement of omics infrastructure on site would provide researchers with data that inform real-time decisions about sampling strategies and experimental manipulations. Technological leaps in genome sequencing technology have been made since the 2015 report such that costs are amenable to provision of these resources at field stations and ships along with computational infrastructure to support data analysis. Additionally, facility-level improvements could be made to support, for example, microcosm or mesocosm systems suitable for experimental simulations of future environmental change scenarios for marine systems, terrestrial lakes, and soils.

Build a Polar Omics Community and Key Partnerships

Community building among Antarctic omics scientists will be essential to transformative progress in Priority II science, and there is a clear need to develop strategies that promote coordinated efforts. The user community of Antarctic life scientists engaged in Priority II research would benefit from coordination efforts; the community size is manageable despite the breadth of research expertise and the spectrum of life forms under investigation (viruses to whales). Current investigators and NSF have a responsibility to work to build this broader research community. Feedback to the committee, however, indicated community concerns that larger initiatives would come at the expense of other important investigator-driven research. Until the research community sees a broader benefit to coordinated efforts, progress is likely to continue at the current, relatively slow pace.

Community guidance to NSF and an Antarctic Genomics Initiative are the key missing links to advance Priority II omics research. The Antarctic biology community should conduct a series of workshops to develop a phylogenetically informed strategy to prioritize representative taxa and species assemblages for omics analyses that address the three Priority II emphases. Organized under the umbrella of an Antarctic Genomics Initiative, the genomes of species spanning the breadth of Antarctic taxa could be prioritized for sequencing to explore fundamental questions concerning diversity and adaptation. These first-order datasets would provide the tapestry to understand functional and adaptive responses to changing environments and are needed for comparative studies to fathom the adaptational biology of Antarctic life.

To help foster community building, NSF can take steps to support and incentivize the central theme of Priority II, the genomic underpinnings of evolutionary response and adaptation to a changing Antarctic environment, and the three emphases identified for significant advancements. NSF should issue a specific call for community-organizing workshops to develop synergistic, multi-investigator consortia focused on the omics of key Antarctic organismal groups and assemblages. NSF could also incentivize RCNs, support targeted science and training workshops,

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

and grow more informal technology networks. Efforts should be made by both NSF and the community to create bridges to larger programs in NSF’s Directorate for Biological Sciences to broaden the network of researchers available to address Priority II questions and to access additional expertise in physiology, developmental biology, and genomics. NSF could encourage Antarctic life science researchers to link to, or develop, programs to address big data questions for Antarctic biology and build data-access-enabled resources through the Polar Cyberinfrastructure program in coordination with the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure.

Reaching outside of NSF to build partnerships for omics resources, infrastructure sharing, and access will also be essential to realize the research objectives identified in NASEM (2015). Partnerships with other government agencies with similar scientific goals, such as DOE, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (also see Chapter 6), could help leverage funding and/or institutional resources. NSF partnerships with international polar research organizations (e.g., the British Antarctic Survey, the Australian Antarctic Division, and the Korean Polar Research Institute) could help to synergize funding, improve access to remote field sites or inaccessible organisms, and develop polar omics. Partnerships with genome centers (e.g., the Broad Institute, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and the Joint Genome Institute) and nongovernmental genome initiatives (e.g., Vertebrate Genomes Project, Earth BioGenome Initiative, and Darwin Tree of Life) could be used to establish common sequencing centers and proteomics facilities available to OPP-funded scientists. These centers and initiatives could also help to develop standardized, organism-specific analysis methods to improve the cross-comparability of data. NSF can also encourage principal investigators to partner with these communities as well to build scientific collaborations. Rather than waiting for the community to self-organize, additional effort by NSF to aid organization by community leaders would be beneficial to generate the scale of Antarctic initiative conveyed in the National Academies 2015 report. This issue many be a matter of communication between the groups.

Ideally, community building will lead to broader and more impactful collaborations, but these studies also require larger award sizes to accommodate the larger research teams. NSF should plan for increasing demands on per-award support levels and consider granting longer-term awards. This could significantly reduce the time to achieve Priority II objectives but may require additional support for Priority II in the near term.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Priority II continues to be a compelling and realistic scientific objective. The application of omics to analyze the biology of evolutionary diversification, functional response, and cold adaptation is central to understanding Antarctic organisms and ecosystems and their sensitivity or resilience to climate change. Likewise, the scientific foundations established with Priority II research are urgently needed given

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

the rise in invasive taxa predicted with warming conditions. High-profile Antarctic omics publications over the last 5 years are illustrative of the significant research opportunities ahead.

Progress falls short of the original Priority II strategic initiative envisioned by NASEM (2015). Outreach to the scientific community about NSF support for Priority II research area was limited and slow. To date, NSF-sponsored omics research is generating advances in understanding Antarctic organisms and ecosystems through grants to individual investigators and small teams. However, genomics is, by its nature, collaborative research, because different skill sets are needed to sequence, assemble, annotate, and verify genomic products. Additional skill sets are needed to use that information in a (typically comparative) physiological or evolutionary context to connect organismal biology to both the environment and genomic mechanisms. The pace of progress (evaluated between 2015 and early 2020) is inadequate to reach the scale and scope of the transformative vision of Priority II by 2025 unless NSF stimulates this initiative through community and partnership building, multidisciplinary training, and resource sharing.

NSF could advance progress toward Priority II through a targeted call for proposals that clearly defines the research objectives. With an emphasis on genetics, the 2019 Dear Colleague Letter did not match the intended scope of Priority II as laid out in the National Academies 2015 report. NSF should support coordinated projects that stimulate an Antarctic Genomics Initiative in a coordinated call that makes progress in the three areas of emphasis identified in the National Academies 2015 report. This will require (1) sequencing the genomes of phylogenetically informed, ecologically important groups of organisms and assemblages; (2) sequencing transcriptomes of key organisms and assemblages both to assess their functional responses in natural and experimental settings and to obtain the expressed genome for taxa with exceedingly large genomes; and (3) support for advanced omics technologies (e.g., metabolomics, proteomics, and epigenomics) which can accelerate hypothesis testing derived from genome-enabled efforts. A call for proposals with clear and updated objectives, emphasizing the use of omics technologies to understand diversity, adaptation, and evolution in the context of environmental change, could expand interest both inside and beyond the Antarctic sciences community—particularly if larger, coordinated, multi-investigator submissions are encouraged.

NSF should evaluate opportunities to enhance access to organisms, samples, and data to advance Priority II science and address logistics challenges that limit access. Efforts to improve access to biological samples will attract a broader research community to Antarctic sciences. Four key opportunities have been identified, each with different benefits and challenges:

  1. Improvement of collection, curation, and U.S.-based sample storage for researchers not in the field (analogous to sediment and ice core collections);
  2. Creation of additional facilities to cultivate and maintain Antarctic organisms in the United States;
Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
  1. Enhancement of temporal and geographic access to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, which necessitates improvements to and better utilization of logistics infrastructure, especially research vessels; and
  2. Upgrades to Antarctic research facilities and vessels to allow real-time genomic analyses to inform ongoing experiments and to facilitate more process-oriented research of biota in their environment so that evolutionary adaptations can be understood in context.

In all cases, additional attention to data management is needed to improve access to ‘omics data, metadata, and associated contextual information. NSF should actively engage the larger research community in an evaluation of these opportunities to improve access to samples and data to advance Priority II science.

Emphasis on community building and partnerships is needed to meet the transformative science opportunities in Priority II. NSF can encourage and stimulate community building through a specific call for workshops focused on developing collaborative, multi-investigator omics research projects. Development of research communities requires effort both by science champions in the community and by proactive NSF efforts to encourage the community to address needs, opportunities, and impediments. OPP partnerships with other NSF directorates, other government agencies, international research organizations, and nongovernmental genome advocacy organizations could be leveraged to enhance the funding and outcomes of Antarctic omics.

Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×

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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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×
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×
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×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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Suggested Citation:"3 Priority II: Using Genomics to Understand How Antarctic Biota Evolve and Adapt." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Mid-Term Assessment of Progress on the 2015 Strategic Vision for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26338.
×
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×
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×
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The Antarctic's unique environment and position on the globe make it a prime location to gain insights into how Earth and the universe operate. This report assesses National Science Foundation (NSF) progress in addressing three priority research areas identified in a 2015 National Academies report: (1) understanding the linkages between ice sheets and sea-level rise, including both a focus on current rates of ice sheet change and studies of past major ice sheet retreat episodes; (2) understanding biological adaptations to the extreme and changing Antarctic environment; and (3) establishing a next-generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) program, partly located in Antarctica, to study the origins of the universe.

NSF has made important progress understanding the impacts of current ice sheet change, particularly through studies focused on the ice sheet and ocean interactions driving ongoing ice mass loss at the Thwaites Glacier and Amundsen Sea region in West Antarctica. Less progress has been made on studies of past major ice sheet retreat episodes. Progress is also strong on CMB research to understand the origins of the universe. Progress has lagged on understanding biological adaptations, in part because of limited community organization and collaboration toward the priority. To accelerate progress during the second half of the initiative, NSF could issue specific calls for proposals, develop strategies to foster collaborations and partnerships, and commission a transparent review of logistical capacity to help illuminate strategies and priorities for addressing resource constraints. Such efforts would also help optimize science and proposal development in an environment of inherently constrained logistics.

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