Plant Host Control and Feedback Responses to Phyllosphere Microbes: Change in Metagenomes and Plant Traits in Response to Environmental Stress

Pi：Ann E.Stapleton(北卡罗来纳大学威尔明顿分校)Copis：Barbara Methé(J.Craig Venter Institute)，Bradley W.Goodner(Hiram College)和Stuart G.Gordon(长老会学院)植物生长和水分关系可以受到叶表面(叶圈)微生物的影响，要么通过增加角质层渗透性产生负面影响，要么通过提高水分利用效率产生积极影响。因此，植物的叶片特征与微生物特征和非生物环境相互作用，形成地上群落的适应性景观。有限的水分供应减少了玉米(Zea Mays L.)在世界范围内让位。气候变化对作物影响的预测表明，可用水将减少，水需求将增加。玉米叶片微生物群落特征与抗旱基因座相关。该项目将利用元基因组学研究叶圈微生物与玉米干旱反应之间的关联，以确定相关的功能基因。更好地了解植物地上与微生物的相互作用有可能从根本上改变抗旱育种方法。教给高中生和本科生的生物学与研究生物学越来越远。因此，许多最优秀的高中生在选择大学专业时都会放弃理科。弥合这些差距对于让有才华的学生相信生物学与他们的生活相关，让他们能够理解并成为科研事业的一部分非常重要。十年前，基因组学和生物信息学开始提供整合的、“同时”的教/学/研究机会。元基因组学是下一步，不仅是在新的研究技术和发现方面，也是在让多个教育水平的学生将遗传学与生态学和生理学联系起来，并更好地认识到地球上各种微生物在自然和人类改变后的栖息地中的作用方面。该项目将在过去成功地将基因组研究与教育相结合的基础上，纳入大型元基因组数据集。从以前的工作中有充分的证据表明，学生可以在研究方面做出重大贡献。该项目将开发从拟议的实验工作到课程的联系，并开发与本科生实验室兼容的尖端功能测试，用于从叶圈中发现的基因组中产生的生化活动。所有序列数据都可以在NCBI序列读取档案馆(SRA)和/或欧洲生物信息学研究所的欧洲核苷酸档案馆(ENA)获取。与序列读数相关的元数据和其他类型的数据，如汇编、注释和元数据，也将通过GenBank与序列读数一起存放。

PI: Ann E. Stapleton (University of North Carolina - Wilmington)CoPIs: Barbara Methé (J. Craig Venter Institute), Bradley W. Goodner (Hiram College), and Stuart G. Gordon (Presbyterian College)Plant growth and water relations can be affected by microbes on the leaf surface (the phyllosphere), either negatively through increased cuticle permeability or positively by increased water use efficiency. Plant leaf features thus interact with microbial characteristics and the abiotic environment to shape the adaptive landscape of the above-ground community. Limited water availability reduces maize (Zea mays L.) yield world-wide. Projections of crop effects under climate change indicate that water availability will decline, and water demand will increase. Maize leaf microbial community features are correlated with drought tolerance loci. The project will examine the association of phyllosphere microbes with maize drought responses using metagenomics to identify relevant functional genes. Better understanding of plant above-ground interactions with microbial inhabitants has the potential to fundamentally change breeding approaches for drought tolerance.The biology taught to high school students and undergraduates is increasingly distant from research biology. As a result, many of the best high-school students leave science behind as they choose college majors. Bridging these gaps is important to convince talented students that biology is relevant in their lives and that they can understand and be part of the scientific research enterprise. A decade ago genomics and bioinformatics started to provide integrated, "same-time" teaching/learning/research opportunities. Metagenomics is the next step up not just in terms of new research techniques and findings, but also in terms of getting students at multiple educational levels to connect genetics to ecology and physiology, and to better appreciate the roles of the vast diversity of microbes in natural and human altered habitats all over the planet. The project will build on past success in merging genomics research with education to include large metagenomics datasets. There is ample evidence from previous work that students can make significant research contributions. The project will develop the connections from the proposed experimental work to courses and develop cutting-edge functional tests compatible with undergraduate labs for biochemical activities emerging from the gene set found in the phyllosphere. All sequence data can be accessed at the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) and/or the European Bioinformatics Institute's European Nucleotide Archive (ENA). Metadata associated with the sequence reads and other types of data such as assemblies, annotation and metadata will also be deposited with the sequence reads as allowable through GenBank.