NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

2014 财年 NSF NPGI 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1401840
• 负责人: Michelle Afkhami
• 金额: $ 21.6万
• 依托单位: Afkhami Michelle E
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1401840&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; NPGI; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology

This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2014. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Michelle Afkhami is "Multiple Mutualist Effects: Linking Functional Genomics to the Ecology of Mutualist Diversity in Plant-microbe Interactions." The host institutions for the fellowship are Michigan State University and the University of Toronto, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Maren Friesen, Yair Shachar-Hill and John Stinchcombe. Training objectives include expanding the Fellow's research from pairwise to multispecies mutualism and gaining training in state-of-the-art molecular and genomics technologies, such as high-throughput sequencing and data analysis. In addition to informing agriculture, conservation and restoration practices, broader impacts of this research include mentoring of undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, development of educational modules for children, and online scientific writing for the public.Crop breeding has focused on high plant yield under high fertilization. However, these practices damage both the environment and human health. To meet the challenge of sustainably providing nutrition for growing human populations, high-performing crop and forage plants that require minimal inputs are needed. Mutualisms -- species interactions in which all organisms benefit -- between host plants and microbes provide a key avenue for meeting this goal. Previous research has focused on pairwise mutualisms (a single host and partner), but in both natural and agro-ecosystems organisms often interact with many mutualists simultaneously. To improve agricultural outputs, research elucidating how multi-species mutualisms impact plant performance is required. This research combines ecological and cutting-edge next generation genomic techniques to study how associating with multiple partners impacts Medicago truncatula, a close relative of important food and forage plants. M. truncatula associates with two groups of microbes that benefit plants by increasing nutrient supply: mycorrhizal fungi (fungi that enhance phosphorus uptake) and rhizobia (bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen for plant consumption). Using factorial experiments, genome-wide association mapping, and transcriptomics, this research will investigate how combinations of microbes impact plant performance, uncover the genes underlying these effects, and determine how gene expression is impacted by multi-species mutualism.

这项行动资助了 2014 财年 NSF 国家植物基因组计划生物学博士后研究奖学金。该奖学金支持研究员在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。米歇尔·阿夫卡米 (Michelle Afkhami) 奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是“多重互利效应：将功能基因组学与植物-微生物相互作用中的互利多样性生态学联系起来”。该奖学金的主办机构是密歇根州立大学和多伦多大学，赞助科学家是 Drs. Maren Friesen、Yair Shachar-Hill 和 John Stinchcombe。 培训目标包括将研究员的研究范围从成对扩展到多物种互利共生，并获得最先进的分子和基因组学技术（例如高通量测序和数据分析）的培训。除了为农业、保护和恢复实践提供信息外，这项研究的更广泛影响还包括指导来自不同背景的本科生、开发儿童教育模块以及为公众提供在线科学写作。施肥。然而，这些做法既损害环境又损害人类健康。为了应对为不断增长的人口可持续提供营养的挑战，需要需要最少投入的高性能作物和饲料植物。宿主植物和微生物之间的互惠关系（所有生物体都受益的物种相互作用）为实现这一目标提供了关键途径。以前的研究主要集中在成对互利共生（单一宿主和伙伴）上，但在自然和农业生态系统中，生物体经常同时与许多互利共生相互作用。为了提高农业产量，需要研究阐明多物种互利共生如何影响植物性能。这项研究结合了生态和尖端的下一代基因组技术，研究与多个伙伴的关联如何影响蒺藜苜蓿（重要的粮食和饲料植物的近亲）。 M. truncatula 与两类微生物相关，它们通过增加养分供应而使植物受益：菌根真菌（增强磷吸收的真菌）和根瘤菌（固定大气中氮以供植物消耗的细菌）。这项研究将利用析因实验、全基因组关联图谱和转录组学，研究微生物组合如何影响植物性能，揭示这些影响背后的基因，并确定多物种互利共生如何影响基因表达。