NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

这一行动为NSF国家植物基因组计划2014财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持在东道主实验室为该研究员制定的研究和培训计划，该研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与度的计划。米歇尔·阿夫哈米这一奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是“多重互惠效应：将功能基因组学与植物-微生物相互作用中互惠多样性的生态学联系起来。”该奖学金的主办机构是密歇根州立大学和多伦多大学，赞助科学家是Maren Friesen博士、Yair Shachar-Hill博士和John Stinchcombe博士。培训目标包括将研究员的研究从成对扩展到多物种互惠，并获得最先进的分子和基因组技术方面的培训，如高通量测序和数据分析。除了为农业、保护和恢复实践提供信息外，这项研究的更广泛影响包括对来自不同背景的本科生的指导，为儿童开发教育模块，以及为公众撰写在线科学文章。作物育种关注的是高施肥下的植物产量。然而，这些做法损害了环境和人类健康。为了应对可持续地为不断增长的人类人口提供营养的挑战，需要高性能的作物和饲料植物，这些植物需要最少的投入。寄主植物和微生物之间的相互作用--所有有机体都从中受益的物种相互作用--为实现这一目标提供了关键途径。以前的研究侧重于成对互惠关系(单一宿主和伙伴)，但在自然和农业生态系统中，生物往往同时与许多互惠关系相互作用。为了提高农业产量，需要研究阐明多物种互惠关系如何影响植物表现。这项研究结合了生态学和尖端的下一代基因组技术，研究了与多个伙伴的联系如何影响元宝草，紫花苜蓿是重要的食物和饲料植物的近亲。丛枝杆菌与两类微生物联系在一起，这两类微生物通过增加营养供应而使植物受益：菌根真菌(促进磷吸收的真菌)和根瘤菌(固定大气氮供植物消费的细菌)。利用析因实验、全基因组关联图谱和转录组学，这项研究将调查微生物组合如何影响植物表现，揭示这些影响的基因，并确定基因表达如何受到多物种互惠关系的影响。

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 Michelle Afkhami is "Multiple Mutualist Effects: Linking Functional Genomics to the Ecology of Mutualist Diversity in Plant-microbe Interactions." The host institutions for the fellowship are Michigan State University and the University of Toronto, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Maren Friesen, Yair Shachar-Hill and John Stinchcombe. Training objectives include expanding the Fellow's research from pairwise to multispecies mutualism and gaining training in state-of-the-art molecular and genomics technologies, such as high-throughput sequencing and data analysis. In addition to informing agriculture, conservation and restoration practices, broader impacts of this research include mentoring of undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, development of educational modules for children, and online scientific writing for the public.Crop breeding has focused on high plant yield under high fertilization. However, these practices damage both the environment and human health. To meet the challenge of sustainably providing nutrition for growing human populations, high-performing crop and forage plants that require minimal inputs are needed. Mutualisms -- species interactions in which all organisms benefit -- between host plants and microbes provide a key avenue for meeting this goal. Previous research has focused on pairwise mutualisms (a single host and partner), but in both natural and agro-ecosystems organisms often interact with many mutualists simultaneously. To improve agricultural outputs, research elucidating how multi-species mutualisms impact plant performance is required. This research combines ecological and cutting-edge next generation genomic techniques to study how associating with multiple partners impacts Medicago truncatula, a close relative of important food and forage plants. M. truncatula associates with two groups of microbes that benefit plants by increasing nutrient supply: mycorrhizal fungi (fungi that enhance phosphorus uptake) and rhizobia (bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen for plant consumption). Using factorial experiments, genome-wide association mapping, and transcriptomics, this research will investigate how combinations of microbes impact plant performance, uncover the genes underlying these effects, and determine how gene expression is impacted by multi-species mutualism.