Collaborative Research: MSB: Defining Plant-Associated Metagenomics

所有陆地植物都与复杂的微生物群落一起生长，这些微生物群落既存在于地上的植物器官上（称为层层），也存在于地下的根上（称为热层）。微生物群（与植物密切相关的微生物群落）与其宿主之间的关系可以从致病到共生。微生物组（由任何特定微生物群编码的一组基因）可以通过向宿主植物提供关键营养物质、保护其免受病原体侵害、产生功能性植物激素以及提供对热等应激源的耐受性来发挥生态系统服务。反过来，植物为微生物群提供了一个改善的环境，包括通过植物糖沉积到土壤中释放的一系列复杂的能量来源。腐烂的植物组织和富含碳的根系分泌物将大量固定的大气碳重新定向到土壤中，使根际成为一个巨大的碳固存区，在不断变化的环境中保持碳平衡非常重要。影响玉米和其他作物产量以及任何植物群落生产力的特定地点气候和土壤特征部分依赖于各自的根际微生物群。这项研究最终将引导农业实践，通过合理利用土壤和当地环境的益生菌能力来提高植物健康和生产力，碳固存和抗病性。该项目团队是一个跨学科的合作小组，来自蒙纳大学教堂山分校、康奈尔大学和美国能源部联合基因组研究所。将要进行的实验将使用两个重要的模式植物物种来定义根际微生物群和相关的微生物群：拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）是植物生物学中快速发现的首要模型，玉米（Zea mays）是作物复杂性状遗传解剖的首要模型。该项目产生的数据将免费提供（http://www.bio.unc.edu/dangl/lab/projects/Metagenome_2-3-10.htm; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/），并将为深入研究宿主-微生物相互作用的复杂性提供起点。该项目将为本科生、博士生和博士后提供培训机会。

All land plants grow in association with complex microbial communities both on aboveground plant organs (called the phyllosphere) and below the ground on roots (called therhizosphere). The relationships between a microbiota (the community of microbesintimately associated with a plant) and its host can vary from pathogenic to symbiotic.The microbiome (the set of genes encoded by any particular microbiota) can performecosystem services by providing the host plant with critical nutrients, protection frompathogens, production of functional plant hormones, and provision of tolerance tostressors like heat. The plant, in turn, provides the microbiome with an improvedenvironment, including a complex array of energy sources released by deposition ofplant-based sugars into the soil. Decaying plant tissue and carbon-rich root exudatesredirect large amounts of fixed atmospheric carbon to the soil, making the rhizosphere alarge carbon sequestration zone, important in the balance of carbon in a changingenvironment. Site specific characteristics of climate and soil that influence the yield ofmaize and other crops and the productivity of any plant community rely in part on therespective rhizosphere microbiome. This research will ultimately lead to agriculturalpractices designed to increase plant health and productivity, carbon sequestration, anddisease resistance through the rational utilization of the probiotic capacity of soils andthe local environment. The project team is a collaborative interdisciplinary group fromUNC-Chapel Hill, Cornell and the DOE Joint Genome Institute. The experiments to becarried out will define the rhizosphere microbiota and associated microbiome using twoimportant model plant species: Arabidopsis thaliana, the premier model for rapiddiscovery in plant biology, and Zea mays, the premier model for genetic dissection ofcomplex traits in crops. Data generated by the project will be made freely available (http://www.bio.unc.edu/dangl/lab/projects/Metagenome_2-3-10.htm; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/), and will provide starting points for a variety of deeper studies into the complexities of host-microbe interactions. The project will provide training opportunities for undergraduates, doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows.