NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

2016 财年 NSF NPGI 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1612268
• 负责人: Samuel Leiboff
• 金额: $ 21.6万
• 依托单位: Leiboff Samuel A
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1612268&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; NPGI; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology

This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016. 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 Dr. Samuel Leiboff is "Exploring Gene Networks in Maize Tassel and Sorghum Panicle Development during Drought" The host institution for the fellowship is the USDA-ARS Plant Gene Expression Center and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Sarah C. Hake.Increasing crop yield during drought is a critical challenge for U.S. corn production. The male flowering structure or tassel of the corn plant makes several branches, which produce the pollen necessary for fertilizing female flowers found in corn ears. During severe drought early in the growing season, energy is re-routed from the tassel to the ear and the number of tassel branches decreases, potentially leading to a shortage of pollen during the season. Sorghum's flowering structure, or panicle, is highly drought-resistant and sorghum has therefore been studied as an ideal crop for drier regions of the U.S. This project aims to understand genome-wide responses to drought in corn tassels and sorghum panicles, providing molecular information for breeding better plant performance during drought. Broader impacts include the formation of undergraduate outreach programs promoting STEM majors, research, and career opportunities to increase participation and retention of LGBT undergraduate students in STEM academic and professional fields. Students will be surveyed over time and long-term management of the programs will be transferred to campus advocacy groups, providing an outreach model for campuses nationwide. Training objectives include genomics, bioinformatics, biological modeling, and molecular genetics. Although previous studies have elucidated gene regulatory networks (GRNs) responsible for tassel branching in maize, little is known about how tassel GRNs respond to abiotic stresses, such as drought. Whereas several maize GRNs are conserved in other grasses, sorghum panicle GRNs have not been established. Using drought to manipulate tassel/panicle morphology, this project will explore GRN-wide drought response in maize and sorghum, including known mutants of tassel/panicle morphology. This research will use RNAseq to analyze inflorescence tissue from several different drought simulations. Leveraging existing GRN and genome resources in maize and sorghum, this project will generate and compare dynamic, drought responsive tassel/panicle GRNs. With these GRNs, morphological models linking RNA levels to tassel/panicle branching will be constructed. To test morphological-GRN models, this project will generate and analyze novel tassel/panicle mutants generated by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing techniques. Research findings and analysis methodologies will be disseminated through conferences, publications, and submissions to data/code repositories (NCBI-SRA, NCBI-GEO, GitHub, MaizeGDB, and Grassius).Keywords: abiotic stress, co-expression networks, drought, inflorescence biology, maize genetics

该行动资助了2016财年NSF国家植物基因组计划生物学博士后研究奖学金。该研究金支持研究员在东道实验室的研究和培训计划，研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。Samuel Leiboff博士的研究和培训计划的标题是“干旱期间玉米雄穗和高粱穗发育中的基因网络探索”，该奖学金的主办机构是USDA-ARS植物基因表达中心，赞助科学家是Sarah C。在干旱期间提高作物产量是美国玉米生产面临的一个关键挑战。玉米植株的雄花结构或雄穗形成几个分枝，这些分枝产生玉米穗中的雌花所需的花粉。在生长季节早期的严重干旱期间，能量从雄穗重新路由到穗，雄穗分支的数量减少，可能导致季节期间花粉短缺。高粱的开花结构，或穗，是高度抗旱性和高粱因此已被研究作为一种理想的作物，为干旱地区的美国该项目旨在了解全基因组的玉米穗和高粱穗干旱的反应，提供分子信息育种更好的植物性能在干旱期间。更广泛的影响包括促进STEM专业，研究和职业机会的本科推广计划的形成，以增加LGBT本科生在STEM学术和专业领域的参与和保留。随着时间的推移，学生将接受调查，这些项目的长期管理将移交给校园宣传团体，为全国各地的校园提供一个推广模式。培训目标包括基因组学、生物信息学、生物建模和分子遗传学。虽然以前的研究已经阐明了玉米雄穗分枝的基因调控网络（GRNs），但对雄穗GRNs如何响应非生物胁迫（如干旱）知之甚少。而几个玉米GRN在其他禾本科植物中是保守的，高粱穗GRN尚未建立。利用干旱来操纵雄穗/穗形态，该项目将探索玉米和高粱的GRN范围内的干旱反应，包括已知的雄穗/穗形态突变体。这项研究将使用RNAseq分析来自几种不同干旱模拟的花序组织。利用玉米和高粱中现有的GRN和基因组资源，该项目将产生并比较动态的、干旱响应的雄穗/穗GRN。利用这些GRNs，将构建将RNA水平与雄穗/穗分枝联系起来的形态学模型。为了测试形态学GRN模型，该项目将生成和分析通过CRISPR/Cas9基因编辑技术生成的新型雄穗/穗突变体。研究结果和分析方法将通过会议、出版物和向数据/代码库（NCBI-SRA、NCBI-GEO、GitHub、MaizeGDB和Grassius）提交的资料传播。关键词：非生物胁迫、共表达网络、干旱、花序生物学、玉米遗传学