CAREER: What is Behind the Worldwide Success of Pseudomonas Syringae Pv. Tomato: a Comparative Evolutionary Genomics investigation

职业生涯：丁香假单胞菌 Pv. 在全球范围内取得成功的背后是什么？

• 批准号: 0746501
• 负责人: Boris Vinatzer
• 金额: $ 108.32万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-04-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0746501&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; What; Behind; Worldwide; Success

The ability of organisms to adapt to new niches becomes a primary concern to our society when it involves the specialization of pathogens to humans, farm animals or crops. Little is known about how plant pathogens, which were adapted to natural mixed-plant communities in pre-agricultural times, evolved into today's highly aggressive pathogens of crops cultivated in monoculture. To fill this void, this project aims at identifying the molecular evolutionary mechanisms that allow pathogens to specialize to specific plant species and to become more aggressive. The bacterial plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (the cause of bacterial speck disease of tomato worldwide) and closely related bacteria, will be the focus of this project. A multidisciplinary approach of comparative evolutionary genomics, population genetics, and microbial genetics will be applied leveraging the latest advances in biological sciences and computer sciences. Research and education will be integrated through the development and teaching of an undergraduate course in 'Microbial Genomics and Forensics' and the creation of internship opportunities for undergraduates in the principal investigator's lab and in the biotechnology industry. It is anticipated that this project will uncover genomic changes that occurred in P. syringae pv. tomato during its evolution since the advent of agriculture and that have led to its current aggressiveness and worldwide distribution. Results from this research are expected to constitute the basis for the development of new hypotheses on the evolution of bacterial pathogens in general and to be instrumental in future breeding and engineering of disease resistant crops. Easy access to obtained results will be provided through a web-accessible database. The research in the principal investigator's lab, the undergraduate course and the collaboration with industry will not only attract students to research and provide advanced training, but also give students of underrepresented groups the opportunity to jump-start their professional careers.

当涉及到病原体对人类、农场动物或农作物的专门化时，生物体适应新生态环境的能力成为我们社会的主要关切。人们几乎不知道植物病原体是如何进化成今天在单一栽培中种植的作物的高度侵略性病原体的，这些病原体在农业时代之前适应于自然的混合植物群落。为了填补这一空白，该项目旨在确定使病原体专门针对特定植物物种并变得更具侵略性的分子进化机制。植物细菌性病原菌紫丁香假单胞菌。番茄(世界范围内番茄细菌性斑点病的病原菌)及其密切相关的细菌将是本项目的重点。将利用生物科学和计算机科学的最新进展，应用比较进化基因组学、种群遗传学和微生物遗传学的多学科方法。研究和教育将通过开发和教授“微生物基因组学和法医学”的本科课程以及为本科生创造在首席研究人员实验室和生物技术行业的实习机会来整合。预计该项目将揭示紫丁香细小病毒发生的基因组变化。自农业出现以来，西红柿一直在进化，这导致了它目前的攻击性和全球分布。这项研究的结果有望成为发展细菌病原体进化的新假说的基础，并将在未来抗病作物的育种和工程中发挥作用。将通过一个可通过网络访问的数据库方便地获取所取得的成果。首席研究员实验室的研究、本科课程以及与产业界的合作不仅将吸引学生进行研究和提供高级培训，而且还将为代表不足的群体的学生提供启动职业生涯的机会。