NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020

2020 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 2010604
• 负责人: Joshua Atkinson
• 金额: $ 20.7万
• 依托单位: Atkinson, Joshua T
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2010604&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This research will integrate approaches from many disciplines including biology, engineering, and physics to analyze and quantify the function of biological molecules important for long-distance electron transfer (LDET) in microbial communities. This research will span hierarchical scales studying how genes and proteins enable the assembly of filaments of bacterial cells that electronically interact with materials present in the environment. Insight into the genetic rules governing microbial LDET has implications for designing multicellular communities to maintain and regenerate nutrient cycles to address global scale challenges in agriculture and sustainability. Knowledge gained during this effort will also enable the construction of novel microbial electronics where cells with modular genetic programs can be coupled to electrodes using LDET through conductive cellular filaments. Additionally, the Fellow will develop an interactive Paper-based Organism Waste Energy Recovery (POWER) device to enable high school and undergraduate students to electronically interact with microbes. The POWER device will allow students to interrogate how different genetic programs alter electricity production and illustrate electrochemical and electrical engineering principles. Microorganisms contribute to Earth-scale biogeochemical processes by regulating electron transfer across a range of spatial scales. Recently, bacteria living in aquatic sediments were discovered that perform LDET by forming filaments of thousands of cells spanning centimeter-scale redox gradients found in these environments. Thus far, it has not been possible to isolate and grow these ‘cable bacteria’ in pure culture. This challenge has limited the throughput of research on understanding the genetic rules governing this unique LDET phenotype. Using recently acquired cable bacteria genomic information and synthetic biology approaches, the Fellow plans to reconstruct cable bacteria phenotypes in a lab-tractable organism, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, to begin testing the genetic components underlying this unique multicellular microbial phenotype. The Fellow will use synthetic biology approaches to program filament formation and train in electrochemical, scanning-probe, and spectroscopic techniques to examine intercellular electron transfer in these synthetic cables. This transformative, systems-based research project will establish the first sequence-function relationships of cable bacteria genes and will be the first step toward decoding the Rules of Life governing long-distance electron transfer.This 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2020财年生物学的NSF博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，该研究综合研究研究了有关基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生活规则。奖学金支持对研究员的研究和培训，这些研究和培训将以创新的方式为生活规则做出贡献。这项研究将整合包括生物学，工程和物理学在内的许多学科的方法，以分析和量化微生物群落中对长距离电子转移（LDET）重要的生物分子的功能。这项研究将跨越分层量表，研究基因和蛋白质如何使细菌细胞的细丝组装，这些细菌细胞与环境中存在的材料相互作用。了解有关微生物LDET的遗传规则的洞察力对设计多细胞群落维护和再生营养周期有影响，以应对同意和可持续性方面的全球规模挑战。在这项工作中获得的知识还将能够构建新型微生物电子产品，其中具有模块化遗传程序的细胞可以通过传导细胞丝使用LDET耦合到电子产品。此外，该研究员将开发一种互动纸张的有机体废物能量回收（Power）设备，以使高中和本科生与微生物进行电子互动。该电源设备将使学生能够询问不同的遗传程序如何改变电力生产并说明电化学和电气工程原理。微生物通过控制一系列空间尺度的电子传输来促进地球规模的生物地球化学过程。最近，发现生活在水生沉积物中的细菌是通过形成跨越这些环境中发现的千分钟氧化还原梯度的成千上万细胞的细丝来执行LDET的。这么远，在纯文化中不可能分离和种植这些“电缆细菌”。这一挑战限制了研究理解这种独特的LDET表型的遗传规则的研究吞吐量。使用最近获得的电缆细菌基因组信息和合成生物学方法，该计划在一个可实验的组织Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1中重建电缆细菌表型，以开始测试这种独特的多细胞微生物表型的遗传成分。该研究员将使用合成生物学方法来编程细丝形成，并在电化学，扫描 - 探针和光谱技术中训练这些合成电缆中的细胞间电子转移。这个基于系统的基于系统的研究项目将建立有线细菌基因的第一个序列功能关系，并将成为解码为长期距离电子传输的生命规则的第一步。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的智力和更广泛的影响来审查Criteria来评估，并通过评估来诚实地支持。

项目成果

A cellular selection identifies elongated flavodoxins that support electron transfer to sulfite reductase

• DOI: 10.1002/pro.4746
• 发表时间: 2023-10-01
• 期刊: PROTEIN SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 8
• 作者: Truong，Albert;Myerscough，Dru;Silberg，Jonathan J.
• 通讯作者: Silberg，Jonathan J.

Introduction to Engineering Biology: A Conceptual Framework for Teaching Synthetic Biology

工程生物学导论：合成生物学教学的概念框架

• DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.3c00194
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: ACS Synthetic Biology
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Sheets, Michael B.;Atkinson, Joshua T.;Styczynski, Mark P.;Aurand, Emily R.;EBRC Education & Engagement Working Group
• 通讯作者: EBRC Education & Engagement Working Group

Determinants of Multiheme Cytochrome Extracellular Electron Transfer Uncovered by Systematic Peptide Insertion

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00148
• 发表时间: 2022-06-10
• 期刊: BIOCHEMISTRY
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Campbell, Ian J.;Atkinson, Joshua T.;Silberg, Jonathan J.
• 通讯作者: Silberg, Jonathan J.