Collaborative Research: RoL-Rules for Dynamic-Light Environmental Sculpting of Genomes

合作研究：基因组动态光环境塑造的 RoL 规则

• 批准号: 2034777
• 负责人: Andrew Leakey
• 金额: $ 122.93万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-06-15 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2034777&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RoL; Rules; Dynamic

The problem of getting a clear signal in a noisy environment is a problem that not only humans must resolve but one that all organisms in nature experience. The goal of this research is to determine the rules by which plants respond to noisy and variable light signals. The investigators hypothesize that switching between low and high levels of light over varying periods of time changes how light is detected by plants. To study this problem, grasses were chosen because grasses evolved to grow in many types of light environments such as on the forest floor where light flickering and shadows are common to open fields where the light changes very little except for clouds and time of day. The investigators hypothesize that the ability for grasses to thrive in these different light environments is encoded in their genomes. The project will examine how genomically encoded sensing adaptations to dynamic and constant light environments shapes the physiology, development, genetics, and evolution of grasses. Investigators will cross train graduate students and post-docs, especially those from underrepresented groups in state-of-the-art molecular biology, physiology and genomics. Seminars will bring together internationally recognized experts in plant ecology, evolutionary biology, plant physiology and genetics with students and scientists who want to apply these perspectives to understand how plants respond to dynamic environments. Up to 60 new post-baccalaureate analysts will participate in international training workshops. Changes in genomic elements at several scales of organization that increase the fitness of an individual are maintained while those changes that decrease fitness are counter selected for propagation. Genomic elements that are neutral to fitness are filtered away relative to the energy cost of maintaining them. These rules are well established at the scale of genes but not yet scalable to genomes. This project takes an integrative approach to this question by characterizing the full genomes of a phenotypically diverse, yet monophyletic, set of grasses from Ecuador. These grasses live in diverse habitats ranging from the Galapagos Islands, the Paramo’ (alpine tundra), the rain forest, and riparian and littoral zones. These grasses also have a wide range of habits (tillering vs vines vs. bushy vs. tree-like), autotrophic metabolism (C3 vs. C4 carbon fixation), and survival strategies (perennial vs. annual). The specific question to be addressed is what genes/alleles shape morphologies/physiologies expressed in dynamic light environments as opposed to stable light environments. This project brings together two basic disciplines: botany and genomics but extends the connections into cell biology, developmental biology, evolution, and systematics.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.

在噪声环境中获得明确信号的问题是一个问题，不仅人类必须解决，而且是所有组织中所有组织经验的问题。这项研究的目的是确定植物响应噪声和可变光信号的规则。研究人员假设在不同时期内的低水平和高水平的光之间切换会改变植物检测到光的方式。为了研究这个问题，之所以选择草，是因为草在许多类型的光线环境中演变而成，例如在森林地面上闪烁的光闪烁和阴影对于开放田而言是常见的，除了云和一天中的云层和时间，光线很少。研究人员假设在这些不同的光环境中，草在其基因组中编码了草的能力。该项目将研究对动态和恒定光环境的基因组编码的敏感性适应性如何塑造草的生理，发育，遗传学和进化。研究人员将跨培训研究生和培训后，尤其是来自最先进的分子生物学，生理学和基因组学中代表性不足的人群的研究生。研讨会将与希望应用这些观点的学生和科学家一起将国际认可的植物生态，进化生物学，植物生理学和遗传学专家汇集在一起​​，以了解植物对动态环境的反应。多达60位新的后核后分析师将参加国际培训研讨会。维持增加个人适应性的组织的基因组元素的变化，而降低适应性的变化则可以抵消进行传播。相对于维持它们的能量成本，将中性至适应性的基因组元素被过滤。这些规则在基因的规模上已建立，但尚不可扩展到基因组。该项目通过表征来自厄瓜多尔的一套原型多样化但单系的草的全部基因组来对这个问题进行综合方法。这些草生活在加拉帕戈斯群岛，帕拉莫（Alpine tundra），雨林以及河岸和沿岸区的潜水栖息地中。这些草还具有广泛的栖息地（Tilling vs Vines vs. Bushy vs.类），自养代谢（C3与C4碳固定）以及生存策略（多年生与年度）。要解决的具体问题是，哪些基因/等位基因塑造了在动态光环境中表达的形态/生理学，而不是稳定的光环境。该项目汇集了两个基本学科：植物学和基因组学，但将连接扩展到细胞生物学，发育生物学，进化和系统学。该奖项反映了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评估。