NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Identifying Mechanisms of Plant Symbiosis Control Through Virus Induced Mutant Stacking (VIMS)

NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：通过病毒诱导突变体堆积 (VIMS) 识别植物共生控制机制

• 批准号: 2305688
• 负责人: Evan Ellison
• 金额: $ 24.9万
• 依托单位: Ellison, Evan E
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305688&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; Identifying

The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Dr. Evan Ellison is “Identifying Mechanisms of Plant Symbiosis Control Through Virus Induced Mutant Stacking (VIMS)”. The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Cambridge and the sponsoring scientist is Prof. Giles E.D. Oldroyd.To sustain and expand food production in a growing global population, next generation crop varieties must be developed that take advantage of natural systems to improve nutrient capture rather than rely on excessive application of inorganic nutrients. Fortunately, most crop species can greatly improve their ability to capture and use essential nutrients through symbiotic relationships with beneficial soil fungi. This symbiosis, however, is restricted if high concentrations of nitrogen or phosphorus have been applied to the soil, limiting the utility. The goal of this research is to characterize unknown signals that regulate symbiosis under high nutrient conditions; thereby identifying crop genotypes that use less input while maintaining high productivity. This project also seeks to democratize and remove financial, geographic and time limitations of large-scale genome editing projects, which is critical for international molecular plant improvement. Broader impacts from this project include generating genetic and technological resources for the plant science community, educating citizen scientists interested in how gene editing contributes to reducing fertilizer use, and translating results for crop improvement and sustainable food production. Training objectives include obtaining hands-on expertise in applying genetic and genomic tools to address biologically important questions. Split root experiments suggest that nutrient suppression of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis exists through largely unknown systemic process in addition to local mechanisms. Secreted peptides have been demonstrated to be a critical component of systemic symbiosis regulation and nutrient response. This research will characterize systemic peptides that regulate symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi in response to differential nutrient conditions. Connecting multiple environmental conditions to their signaling response will be accomplished by developing a new method of Viral Induced Mutant Stacking to rapidly stack targeted mutations across a population. This novel genetic screening technique will be applied to create a combinatorial population of peptide mutants and isolate genetic backgrounds enabling symbiosis under nutrient suppressive conditions. Mutant populations and genetic engineering reagents generated during this project will be immediately available to researchers for independent investigations. New technology developed in this research can be used to study complex, integrated, phenotypic responses while providing valuable insight into the systemic regulation of symbiosis. Causal alleles identified using this approach can quickly be incorporated into agriculturally relevant species for rapid crop improvement. All data, genetic and molecular resources, and methodological advances will be made freely available to the general scientific community through public long-term repositories and upon request.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.

Evan Ellison 博士的研究和培训计划的标题是“通过病毒诱导突变体堆积（VIMS）识别植物共生控制的机制”，该奖学金的主办机构是剑桥大学，资助科学家是。 Giles Oldroyd 教授：为了在全球人口不断增长的情况下维持和扩大粮食生产，必须开发利用自然系统来改善养分捕获的下一代作物品种，而不是依赖过度施用幸运的是，大多数作物物种可以通过与有益的土壤真菌的共生关系大大提高其捕获和利用必需养分的能力，但是，如果向土壤施用高浓度的氮或磷，则这种共生关系会受到限制。这项研究的目标是表征在高营养条件下调节共生的未知信号；从而识别使用较少投入同时保持高生产力的作物基因型。规模基因组编辑该项目对国际分子改良植物至关重要，该项目的更广泛影响包括为植物科学界创造遗传和技术资源，教育对基因编辑如何有助于减少化肥使用感兴趣的公民科学家，以及将成果转化为作物改良和可持续发展。培训目标包括获得应用遗传和基因组工具解决生物学重要问题的实践专业知识，表明除了局部机制外，丛枝菌根共生的营养抑制还存在于很大程度上未知的系统过程中。这项研究将表征调节与菌根真菌共生的系统性肽，以响应不同的营养条件，将通过开发一种新的病毒诱导突变体堆积方法来实现将多种环境条件与其信号反应联系起来，以在群体中快速堆积目标突变。新的遗传筛选技术将用于创建肽突变体的组合群体并分离遗传背景，从而在营养抑制下实现共生该项目中产生的突变体群体和基因工程试剂将立即可供研究人员进行独立研究。该研究中开发的新技术可用于研究复杂的、综合的表型反应，同时为共生的系统调节提供有价值的见解。使用这种方法识别的因果等位基因可以快速纳入农业相关物种，以实现快速作物改良。所有数据、遗传和分子资源以及方法学进展将通过公共长期存储库并根据要求免费提供给广大科学界。这授予 NSF 的法定使命，并通过评估反映使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得支持。