ERA-CAPS: Collaborative Research: Role of Extracellular Vesicles in Plant-Microbe Interactions

病原体可以摧毁农作物，对粮食安全构成重大威胁。了解植物和微生物如何相互作用将有助于研究人员开发工具和资源，以避免作物受损并减少病原体的疾病传播。最近，科学家们在植物细胞间隙中发现了微小体，这些所谓的细胞外囊泡（EVs）被认为在微生物和宿主植物之间的信号传递中发挥作用。尽管在动物身上已经有了很好的研究，但ev在植物体内的作用机制尚不完全清楚。为了了解它们的功能，开发了新的生化技术，并令人惊讶地发现，电动汽车含有“应激反应”蛋白质，并携带小分子（sRNA），已知这些小分子可以关闭（或沉默）基因。该项目验证了植物ev可能在微生物和植物宿主之间携带和转移这些重要的sRNA信号分子的假设。该团队还将研究植物ev如何产生，以及植物和病原体如何交换ev。这项研究的结果将为提高植物抗病性提供关键知识，并为社会带来长期的实际成果。值得注意的是，控制疾病传播将改善粮食安全，同时降低生产成本和对环境有害的杀菌剂的使用。了解ev的作用可以为抗病工程提供靶标，并将推动分子在寄主植物和病原体之间转移的分析方法的研究。通过在植物-微生物相互作用和计算生物学领域对学生和博士后科学家进行跨学科培训，将实现教育影响。该项目将特别关注来自拟南芥的EVs，以及一种模式豆科植物，Medicago truncatula（苜蓿的亲戚），病原体分析侧重于炭疽菌，一种真菌属，包括许多高度破坏性的物种，以及疫霉菌，一种卵菌属，包括P. infestans，爱尔兰马铃薯饥荒的病原体。这项工作将在这些物种中进行，因为有重要的，现有的遗传和分子资源和背景工作，包括来自该项目的欧洲合作伙伴。该项目需要解决的问题包括电动汽车是否是植物与其真菌病原体之间信息传递的主要机制？电动汽车的内容是什么？电动汽车如何转让和交付？最终，该项目将解决是否改变电动汽车的内容有显著影响植物与真菌的相互作用。该项目将表征植物的表型，以及潜在的真菌和卵菌菌株在其EV含量上的改变。项目成员将在植物和真菌相互作用、小RNA生物学和基因组学、细胞生物学和显微镜学以及计算方法方面接受广泛的培训，通过个人和小组项目分析电动汽车的定位、生物发生和生物化学。研究结果将通过跨学科培训产生广泛的影响，并将通过提供提高植物抗病性的基础知识来促进国家安全。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Pathogens can decimate crop plants and are a major threat to food security. Understanding how plants and microbes interact will help researchers develop tools and resources to avoid crop damage and reduce the spread of disease from pathogens. Recently, scientists have discovered microscopic bodies in the spaces between plant cells, and these so-called extracellular vesicles (EVs) are thought to play a role in signaling between microbes and host plants. Although well studied in animals, how EVs function in plants is not fully understood. To understand their function, new biochemical techniques were developed and it was found, surprisingly, that EVs contain "stress response" proteins, and carry small molecules (sRNA), which are known to shut down (or silence) genes. The project tests the hypothesis that plant EVs may carry and transfer these important sRNA signaling molecules between microbes and plant hosts. The team will also study how plant EVs are produced, and how plants and pathogens exchange EVs. The outcomes of the research will provide key knowledge to improve plant disease resistance, with long-term practical outcomes for society. Notably, controlling disease spread will improve food security while reducing production costs and use of environmentally harmful fungicides. Understanding the role of EVs could yield targets for engineering resistance to pathogens and will advance analytical methods for studying how molecules are transferred between host plant and pathogen. Educational impacts will be achieved through interdisciplinary training of students and post-doctoral scientists in the area of plant - microbe interactions and in computational biology. This project will focus specifically on EVs from Arabidopsis, plus a model legume, Medicago truncatula (a relative of alfalfa), with pathogen analyses focused on Colletotrichum, a genus of fungi that include many highly destructive species, and Phytophthora, a genus of oomycetes that includes P. infestans, the causal agent of the Irish potato famine. The work will be done in these species because there are significant, existing genetic and molecular resources and background work, including from the European partners of the project. The questions to be addressed by this project include whether EVs are a primary mechanism for transfer of information between plants and their fungal pathogens? What are the contents of the EVs? How are the EVs transferred and delivered? Ultimately, the project will address whether altering the contents of the EVs has a significant impact on plant-fungal interactions. The project will characterize phenotypes of plants and potentially fungal and oomycete strains altered in their EV contents. Project members will be trained broadly in plant and fungal interactions, small RNA biology and genomics, cell biology and microscopy, and computational methods through individual and group projects in the analysis of the localization, biogenesis, and biochemistry of EVs. The results will have broad impact though interdisciplinary training and will promote national security by contributing basic knowledge to improve plant disease resistance.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.