NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

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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 and also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Dr. Alice MacQueen is "Genomics of yield variation and physiology of genotype-by-environment interactions in common bean." The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Texas at Austin and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Tom Juenger.Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is the most consumed source of plant protein worldwide and is a particularly important source of protein in the developing world. A question of pressing importance is how important crop traits, such as protein or yield, were influenced by interaction of genes with the environment, so called GXE interactions. Common bean was domesticated to grow in a wide variety of environments and is thus an excellent candidate to explore how crop traits are determined by GXE interactions. An extensive dataset of over 500 common bean varieties grown at 36 locations across the United States over 34 years links bean traits in different environments. This research project leverages these historical datasets and will document genetic variation in common bean, thus providing an exciting opportunity to connect the traits to their genetic drivers. Undergraduate students will be trained in cutting edge genomic analysis and the public will learn about plant genomics through outreach activities with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.This project combines experiments and computational analyses to determine the interactions of GXE on yield variation and other traits of common bean. New association mapping populations will be produced, and these will be directly connected to historically robust datasets containing phenotype and yield data for common bean. The genetics of yield variation will be determined through genome-wide association approaches, both for regions with genomic variation between varieties and genomic regions fixed by local adaptation between bean races. The project will test for differential expression and physiology between varieties with and without GxE in response to specific climate drivers.