NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Deciphering CLE Peptide Signaling Pathways in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

2019 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：破译向日葵（Helianthus annuus）中的 CLE 肽信号通路

• 批准号: 1906389
• 负责人: Daniel Jones
• 金额: $ 21.6万
• 依托单位: Jones, Daniel Scott
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1906389&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019. 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 Dr. Daniel Scott Jones is "Deciphering CLE peptide signaling pathways in sunflower (Helianthus annuus)". The host institution for the fellowship is the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Zachary Nimchuk. Unlike animals, plants continue to develop and generate new organs throughout their lifespan. To support this continual growth, plants maintain a functional set of stem cells that can divide and become any other type of cell within the plant as needed; giving rise to all cells found in stems, leaves, roots, flowers, and seeds. Even slight changes in the number of stem cells maintained in the shoot of a plant can have a direct impact on the number and size of organs it produces. Understanding how stem cell identity is controlled in plants is directly linked with our ability to influence agronomically important traits such as fruit size, grain yield or even overall crop health and performance. This project aims to uncover key genes regulating stem cell identity in sunflower, an important seed and oil crop. During the course of this project, tools will be developed to further the use of sunflower as a model research system for studying species within the sunflower family (Asteraceae), one of the largest plant families with great economic significance/potential. Support provided during this fellowship will also enable research opportunities specifically catered toward first-generation college students at the host institution. Training objectives include acquiring new skills in comparative genomics, development, epigenetics and bioinformatics. Understanding how conserved signaling pathways mediate cell-cell communication to coordinate diverse developmental forms is a central question within the biology. CLE (CLAVATA3/Endosperm surrounding region-related) peptide signaling represents a conserved pathway regulating stem cell identity and organogenesis across highly divergent species. The main objectives of this project are to: 1) identify CLE signaling components expressed during inflorescence development in sunflower; 2) define signaling outputs in sunflower shoot and root meristems in response to CLE peptides via RNA-seq and ATAC -seq; 3) implement CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis in sunflower and functionally analyze key CLE pathway components; 4) complete an intensive scientific training program, developing new skills in comparative and large-scale genomics while producing foundational data from which to build an independent research program. All genomic datasets generated during the course of this study will be deposited into the publicly accessible Gene Expression Omnibus-GEO (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) and will be freely shared with the sunflower community via the Institut National de la Recherche Aronomique (INRA) Sunflower Bioinformatics Resource site (https://www.heliagene.org/). Additionally, all CRISPR-Cas9 constructs, optimized for use in sunflower, will be made available by request and through Addgene, the nonprofit global plasmid repository (https://www.addgene.org/), for ease of distribution. Keywords: sunflower, RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, transcriptome, stem cell, intercellular signaling, inflorescence, flowerThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该行动为2019财年的生物学博士研究金提供了NSF国家植物基因组倡议。该奖学金支持该研究员的主机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计划的计划。丹尼尔·斯科特·琼斯（Daniel Scott Jones）博士的这项奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是“在葵花（Helianthus annuus）中解密的CLE肽信号通路”。奖学金的主持机构是教堂山的北卡罗来纳大学，赞助科学家是Zachary Nimchuk博士。与动物不同，植物在整个生命周期中继续发展并产生新的器官。为了支持这种持续的生长，植物保持了一组功能性的干细胞，可以根据需要分裂并成为植物中任何其他类型的细胞；产生在茎，叶，根，花和种子中发现的所有细胞。即使是植物芽中保持的干细胞数量的略有变化也会直接影响其产生的器官的数量和大小。了解在植物中如何控制干细胞身份与我们影响农艺上重要特征的能力，例如水果大小，谷物产量甚至整体作物健康和性能。该项目旨在发现调节葵花籽干细胞身份的关键基因，这是一种重要的种子和油作物。在该项目的过程中，将开发工具，以进一步使用向日葵作为模型研究系统，用于研究向日葵家族（Asteraceae）中的物种，这是具有巨大经济意义/潜力的最大植物科之一。在此奖学金期间提供的支持还将使研究机会专门针对主持人机构的第一代大学生。 培训目标包括获得比较基因组学，发展，表观遗传学和生物信息学方面的新技能。 了解保守的信号通路如何介导细胞 - 细胞通信以协调各种发育形式是生物学中的一个核心问题。 CLE（clavata3/endosperm周围与区域相关的）肽信号传导代表了一种保守的途径，该途径调节了高度不同的物种的干细胞身份和器官发生。该项目的主要目标是：1）确定在葵花籽发育过程中表达的CLE信号传导成分； 2）通过RNA -SEQ和ATAC -SEQ响应CLE肽，定义向日葵芽和根分生组织中的信号传导输出； 3）在向日葵中实施CRISPR-CAS9诱变，并在功能上分析关键CLE途径成分； 4）完成一项密集的科学培训计划，在生产基础数据的同时，开发了比较和大规模基因组学方面的新技能，从中构建了独立的研究计划。本研究过程中生成的所有基因组数据集将存放到公共访问的基因表达综合 - 乔治（http://wwwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/）中，并将通过de la recherche aronomique（inra inra anra anra anra anra）Sounfort sunfort sunfort sunfore nationut sunfore soutrict sunfore nationut sunfore nation sunfor sunfors （https://www.heliagene.org/）。此外，所有用于向日葵使用的CRISPR-CAS9构建体将根据请求和非营利性全球质粒存储库（https://www.addgene.org/）提供AddGene提供，以易于分布。关键字：向日葵，RNA-Seq，Atac-Seq，转录组，干细胞，细胞间信号传导，花序，花序，Flowerthis Award反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来通过评估来进行支持。