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

病原体可以大量毁灭农作物，是粮食安全的主要威胁。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引起的疾病传播。最近，科学家们在植物细胞之间的空间中发现了微观体，这些所谓的细胞外囊泡（EV）被认为在微生物和宿主植物之间的信号传递中发挥作用。虽然在动物中进行了很好的研究，但EV在植物中的功能尚未完全了解。为了了解它们的功能，人们开发了新的生物化学技术，令人惊讶的是，EV含有“应激反应”蛋白，并携带小分子（sRNA），已知这些小分子可以关闭（或沉默）基因。该项目测试了植物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是如何产生的，以及植物和病原体如何交换EV。研究成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使用对环境有害的杀真菌剂。 了解EV的作用可以产生对病原体的工程抗性的目标，并将推进研究分子如何在宿主植物和病原体之间转移的分析方法。将通过在植物-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，实现教育影响。该项目将特别关注来自拟南芥的EV，加上一种模式豆科植物，苜蓿（苜蓿的亲戚），病原体分析集中在Colletotrichum，一种包括许多高度破坏性物种的真菌属，以及Phytophthora，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，因为有重要的现有遗传和分子资源以及背景工作，包括该项目的欧洲合作伙伴。这个项目所要解决的问题包括EV是否是植物和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？电动汽车是如何运输和交付的？最终，该项目将解决改变EV的内容是否对植物-真菌相互作用产生重大影响。该项目将表征植物的表型，以及EV含量改变的潜在真菌和卵菌菌株。项目成员将接受广泛的培训，包括植物和真菌的相互作用，小RNA生物学和基因组学，细胞生物学和显微镜，以及通过个人和小组项目分析EV的定位，生物起源和生物化学的计算方法。通过跨学科的培训，其成果将产生广泛的影响，并将通过贡献基础知识来提高植物抗病性，从而促进国家安全。该奖项反映了NSF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.