Combined Modeling and Experimental Study of the Mechanisms of Growth Patterns in Stem Cell Homeostasis in Plants

该项目旨在了解细胞之间的机械连接和它们之间的化学信号如何合作，以控制植物生长过程中干细胞的生长，自组织和分化。 数学和计算机模型将使研究人员能够进行目前在实验室中不可能进行的虚拟实验。 再加上实时成像实验和新的图像分析方法，这些实验将深入了解植物和动物器官形成的生物学机制以及结肠上皮细胞层癌症的发展。加州大学滨江分校是一所西班牙裔服务机构，学生群体非常多样化，许多学生是家庭中第一个上大学的学生。该团队将积极与来自代表性不足群体的本科生和研究生以及高中生合作，开展与拟议研究计划相关的跨学科项目。外展活动将与新成立的加州大学滨江生物学定量建模跨学科中心（ICQMB）协调。通过ICQMB，将定期组织会议和研讨会，讨论生物学和数学建模的中间阶段的主题，丰富UCR的其他小组以及南加州的其他大学和学院。植物的茎顶端分生组织（SAMs）含有一组干细胞，这些干细胞分化成用于所有地上器官（如叶子）发育的细胞，构成维持地球上生命所需的全部生物量。就像动物系统一样，植物干细胞在SAMs中的维持涉及到在多层组织背景下抑制分化的保守分子机制。这个跨学科研究计划的主要目标是将联合收割机的开发和校准与专门设计的瞬时基因操作和空间实时成像方法相结合，调控SAM中干细胞维持和干细胞后代分化细胞生长和分裂模式的时间研究。迄今为止，在SAM中的细胞分裂行为的最先进的建模工作仅限于表面细胞层，其也不考虑在这种多层结构中协调生长行为的细胞信号传导。由该团队开发的建模环境将结合联合收割机对SAM所有层中几个尺度的分子和机械信号的描述，以确定导致SAM正确形状和形式的生物机制。尤其是。多尺度模型模拟将用于检验假设，即WUSCHEL和细胞分裂素可能共同和/或独立地影响细胞壁生长、细胞分裂速率和细胞分裂平面的位置，以组织SAM生长。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This project aims to understand how mechanical connections among cells and chemical signals between them collaborate to control the growth, sell-organization and differentiation of stem cells during plant growth. Mathematical and computer models will allow researchers to perform virtual experiments that are currently impossible in the lab. Coupled with live imaging experiments and new image analysis methods, these experiments will yield insights into biological mechanisms governing organ formation in plants and animals and development of cancer in epithelial cell layers of the colon. UC Riverside is a Hispanic-serving institution with very diverse student population and with many students being first in their families to attend college. The team will be actively working with undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups as well as with high school students on the interdisciplinary projects related to proposed research program. Outreach activities will be coordinated with the newly established UC Riverside Interdisciplinary Center for Quantitative Modeling in Biology (ICQMB). Through ICQMB, regular meetings and workshops will be organized on topics at the interphase of biology and mathematical modeling, enriching other groups at UCR as well as other universities and colleges in Southern California.The shoot apical meristems (SAMs) in plants harbor a set of stem cells that differentiate into cells for the development of all above-ground organs such as leaves, stem and branches that constitute the entire biomass required for sustaining life on earth. Like in animal systems, plant stem cell maintenance in SAMs involves conserved molecular mechanism of repression of differentiation in the context of a multilayered tissue.The main goal of this interdisciplinary research program is to combine development and calibration of a multiscale mathematical and computational modeling platform with specifically designed transient gene manipulations and live imaging methods for the spatio-temporal study of cell growth and division patterns that regulate stem cell maintenance and differentiation of stem cell progeny in SAMs. To date, the most advanced modeling efforts of cell division behavior in SAMs are restricted to the surface cell layers which also do not account for cell signaling in coordinating growth behaviors in this multi-layered structure. Modeling environment to be developed by the team will combine descriptions of molecular and mechanical signaling at several scales in all layers of the SAM to determine biological mechanisms resulting in correct shape and form of the SAM. In particular. multiscale model simulations will be used for testing hypothesis that WUSCHEL and cytokinin may function together and/or independently to influence cell wall growth, cell division rates and position of plane of cell division to organize the SAM growth.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.