NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

本行动资助2014财年美国国家科学基金会国家植物基因组计划生物学博士后研究奖学金。该奖学金支持奖学金获得者在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该奖学金获得者还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。Jennifer Wisecaver的研究和培训计划的标题是“植物次生代谢基因簇的进化”。该奖学金的主办机构是范德比尔特大学和约翰英纳斯中心（英国诺福克）。安东尼斯·罗卡斯和安妮·奥斯本。培训目标包括比较和进化植物基因组学和生物信息学。更广泛的影响包括所有学术水平的学生的教学和培训，包括代表性不足的群体，包括通过范德比尔特大学科学推广中心向当地高中推广，以及对本科生和研究生的指导。植物中的基因簇产生与抗逆性相关的代谢物，这是一种生态和农业上重要的性状。此外，许多聚集的植物通路编码具有抗菌和抗癌特性的小分子。尽管植物基因簇很重要，但能够导致它们发现的计算工具尚不发达，基因组中基因簇的形成和维持机制也缺乏表征。该项目将使用比较基因组学来量化基因复制和其他基因创新来源对植物基因组中代谢簇的形成、维持和扩散的相对影响。所有可用的植物基因组将被筛选推测的代谢簇，整个基因组中推测的基因簇的基因表达水平将被功能表征，以测试不同生长条件下基因簇的共同调控。将确定产生集群基因的进化过程，并对它们在植物基因集群中的相对贡献进行量化。所获得的知识将提高我们对植物次生代谢基因簇如何进化的理解，这将使研究人员不仅能够更好地注释和解释新的次生代谢基因簇，而且还可以更好地操纵它们以开发新的作物品种，以应对气候变化和对粮食、生物燃料和其他植物产品需求增加所带来的农业挑战。

This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2014. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Jennifer Wisecaver is "The Evolution of Secondary Metabolic Gene Clusters in Plants." The host institutions for the fellowship are Vanderbilt University and the John Innes Centre (Norfolk, UK) and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Antonis Rokas and Anne Osbourn. Training objectives include comparative and evolutionary plant genomics and bioinformatics. Broader impacts include teaching and training of students at all academic levels, with the inclusion of underrepresented groups, including outreach to local high schools through Vanderbilt's Center for Science Outreach as well as the mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students.Gene clusters in plants produce metabolites associated with stress tolerance, an ecologically and agriculturally important trait. Additionally, many clustered plant pathways code for small molecules with antimicrobial and anticancer properties. Despite the importance of plant gene clusters, the computational tools that can lead to their discovery are underdeveloped and the mechanisms that make and maintain gene clusters in genomes are poorly characterized. This project will use comparative genomics to quantify the relative impact of gene duplication and other sources of gene innovation on the formation, maintenance and dispersal of metabolic clusters in plant genomes. All available plant genomes will be screened for putative metabolic clusters and gene expression levels of putative gene clusters across entire genomes will be functionally characterized to test for co-regulation of gene clusters under different growth conditions. The evolutionary processes that give rise to clustered genes will be identified and their relative contribution in plant gene clusters will be quantified. The knowledge gained will improve our understanding of how plant secondary metabolic gene clusters evolve, which will allow researchers to not only better annotate and interpret novel secondary metabolic clusters, but also better manipulate them for the development of new crop varieties to address agricultural challenges due to climate change and increased demand for food, biofuels, and other plant products.