NSF PRFB FY23: Cross-species gene regulation of a plant-fungal symbiosis under environmental stress

NSF PRFB FY23：环境胁迫下植物-真菌共生的跨物种基因调控

• 批准号: 2305481
• 负责人: Damian Hernandez
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Hernandez, Damian
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2027-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305481&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; PRFB; FY23; Cross; species

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, 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. About 75% of all land plants partner with just one type of fungus, "arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi". This relationship shapes how plants get nutrients and how whole ecosystems function. Whether this relationship is useful for plants depends on environmental factors like nutrient availability. For example, fungi often help plants when nutrients are scarce, but can harm plants when plants can easily get nutrients on their own. Unfortunately, the genes that control when this relationship harms or helps plants are not well-known. Knowing which genes determine when fungi benefit plants will be vital to using fungi in agriculture and biodiversity efforts. The fellow will use large gene surveys, greenhouse experiments, and microscopy to explore how plants and fungi impact each other’s genes under different conditions. The fellow also proposes broadening participation in biology by continuing to mentor students from diverse backgrounds and organizing career development seminars for students. These seminars will provide necessary knowledge for applying to careers in STEM.The fellow will identify genetic regulation occurring across species (i.e., plant genes that regulate fungal genes and vice versa) to understand how plants and fungi co-regulate their relationship in different environmental conditions. The fellow will satisfy this objective in three aims: 1) the fellow will explore how environmental stress reorganizes co-expression patterns of plant and fungal genes using gene co-expression networks, 2) the fellow will use plant growth assays of the model legume Medicago trunculata missing potentially important regulatory genes (i.e., genes with many connections in the above networks) with/without arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under different stresses, and, lastly, 3) the fellow will grow Medicago truncatula with 19 different characterized fungal isolates to explore how genetic/functional diversity of fungal partners impacts context-dependency of plant-mycorrhizal associations. Through the completion of this project and working closely with Drs. John Stinchcombe and Vasilis Kokkoris, the fellow will: 1) refine his training in next-generation sequencing and multivariate statistics, 2) gain skills in fungal biology and fungal assays, and 3) develop as a mentor through teaching biology courses and developing courses through his professional development seminar series.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.

这项行动资助了 2023 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，即研究基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将为规则领域做出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。大约 75% 的陆地植物只与一种真菌“丛枝菌根真菌”合作，这种关系决定了植物获取营养的方式以及整个生态系统的方式。这种关系是否对植物有用取决于养分可用性等环境因素，例如，当养分匮乏时，真菌通常会帮助植物，但当植物可以轻松地自行获取养分时，真菌就会伤害植物。这种关系对植物有害还是有益尚不清楚，了解哪些基因决定真菌何时有益于植物对于在农业和生物多样性方面利用真菌至关重要。真菌在不同条件下相互影响基因该研究员还建议通过继续指导来自不同背景的学生并为学生组织职业发展研讨会来扩大对生物学的参与。这些研讨会将为申请 STEM 职业提供必要的知识。该研究员将识别跨物种的遗传调控。 ，植物基因调节真菌基因，反之亦然）以了解植物和真菌如何在不同环境条件下共同调节它们的关系。该研究员将通过三个目标来实现这一目标：1）该研究员将探索环境压力如何重组共表达。的模式使用基因共表达网络的植物和真菌基因，2) 该研究员将在有/没有丛枝菌根真菌的情况下，使用模型豆科植物 Medicago trunculata 的植物生长测定，缺少潜在的重要调节基因（即，在上述网络中具有许多连接的基因）不同的压力，最后，3) 该研究员将种植蒺藜苜蓿和 19 种不同特征的真菌分离株，以探索真菌伙伴的遗传/功能多样性如何影响通过完成该项目并与 John Stinchcombe 和 Vasilis Kokkoris 博士密切合作，该研究员将：1）完善下一代测序和多元统计方面的培训，2）获得以下方面的技能：真菌生物学和真菌测定，以及 3) 通过教授生物学课程和通过他的专业发展研讨会系列开发课程，发展成为导师。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用评估被认为值得支持基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。