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。约翰·T·洛维尔的这项研究和培训计划的标题是“确定巴拿马属牧草杂种优势和无融合生殖的基因组基础”。该奖学金的主办机构是德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校，赞助科学家是Thomas Juenger博士和合作者Dan Rohksar博士(美国能源部联合基因组研究所)、Jeremy Schmutz博士(HudsonAlpha生物技术公司)和Timothy Sharbel博士(德国IPK-Gatersleben)。培训目标包括生物信息学、数量遗传学和生理学。更广泛的影响包括发展本科生指导计划和纳入代表不足的群体。为了满足不断增长的人口的未来需求，必须提高食品和生物燃料生产的效率。实现这一目标的一个广泛成功的机制是杂交育种。研究人员利用杂交后代(杂种优势)的生长和繁殖增加的优势，极大地提高了玉米、油菜和许多其他粮食作物的产量。然而，这些成功还没有在柳枝草和其他生物燃料作物上实现，尽管有证据表明它们具有高度的杂种优势。在该研究金的任期内进行的研究将提供一个框架，通过以下两个目标来实现柳枝条的杂交育种目标：1)利用基因组工具确定柳枝条及其相关物种杂种优势的遗传基础；2)评估通过诱导无性种子生产(无融合生殖)来固定世代杂种优势的可行性。

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 John T. Lovell is "Determining the genomic basis of heterosis and apomixis in Panicum grasses". The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Texas, Austin and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Thomas Juenger with collaborators Drs. Dan Rohksar (DOE Joint Genome Institute), Jeremy Schmutz (HudsonAlpha Biotechnology) and Timothy Sharbel (IPK-Gatersleben, Germany). Training objectives include bioinformatics, quantitative genetics and physiology. Broader impacts include the development of undergraduate mentoring programs and the inclusion of underrepresented groups.To meet the future needs of a growing population, the efficiency of both food and biofuel production must be improved. One widely successful mechanism to accomplish this goal is hybrid breeding. Researchers have greatly improved yield in maize, canola and many other food crops by taking advantage of increased growth and reproduction of hybrid offspring (heterosis). However, these successes have not been realized in switchgrass and other lingo-cellulose biofuel crops despite evidence of high levels of heterosis. Research conducted through the tenure of this fellowship will provide a framework to achieve hybrid breeding goals in switchgrass by addressing two objectives: 1) to determine the genetic basis of heterosis in switchgrass and related species using genomic tools, and 2) to assess the feasibility to fixing heterosis across generations through the induction of asexual seed production (apomixis).