Collaborative Research: Multiscale Characterization and Dynamics Modeling of Stomatal Function in Plants

合作研究：植物气孔功能的多尺度表征和动力学建模

• 批准号: 1852184
• 负责人: Jun Zou
• 金额: $ 23.78万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1852184&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Multiscale; Characterization; Dynamics

This grant will support research that will improve our understanding of the functions of stomata, the micro-size pores in plant leaf surfaces. As the gatekeeper of carbon dioxide and water vapor exchange between plants and their surrounding environment, stomata are not only crucial to the health of the individual plants, but also have a direct and global impact on the evolution of our entire ecosystem. However, currently our understanding of stomatal movement and function is limited by the conventional strategies that only captured static, averaged, and long-term macro scale behaviors of stomata. Little is known about the qualitative characteristics of stomata behavior and functions at the micro-scale, and their correlation with the underlying physiological processes of the host plant. This award supports fundamental research to create a multiscale dynamics modeling framework centered on instantaneous stomatal movement. Success of this research will create a unique, powerful tool for stomata studies and a game-changing sensing device for monitoring and controlling plants' physiological activities, opening up and enabling a wide-range of fundamental biological research (e.g., defending mechanism of plants against insect attack, plant-environment interaction) and frontier agricultural applications (e.g., optimal crop growth control, rapid genotype to phenotype transition). Thus, results from this research will benefit both the U.S. society and the economy. The multidisciplinary nature of the research across dynamic system modeling and diagnostics, micro-electro-mechanical systems, and plant biology will help to attract and broaden participations of underrepresented groups in engineering and science fields, and positively impact engineering and science education. The multiscale characterization and modeling of stomatal movement can provide the tools needed for revealing the missing links between the internal molecular dynamics and the external cellular movement involved in stomatal regulation, and for mapping and correlating biomechanical evolutions of stomata and their underneath genetic roots. However, scientific challenges are yet to be addressed to establish such a modeling framework. The research team will create a biophysics-based multiscale stomatal dynamics model that links and correlates subcellular mechanical evolutions to microscale cellular activities during stomatal movement. The modeling approach will be built upon a novel atomic force microscope technique to quantitatively map nanomechanical evolutions during single stoma movement, and one-of-a-kind miniaturized sensors to measure the water vapor and electrical potential variations caused by the stomata movements. They will also identify, evaluate, and optimize the stomatal dynamics model through experiments, by using maize and Arabidopsis thaliana as example systems.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.

这笔拨款将支持研究，以提高我们对气孔功能的理解，气孔是植物叶片表面的微孔。作为植物与周围环境之间二氧化碳和水蒸气交换的守门人，气孔不仅对植物个体的健康至关重要，而且对整个生态系统的进化具有直接和全球性的影响。然而，目前我们对气孔运动和功能的理解受到传统策略的限制，这些策略只捕获了气孔静态、平均和长期宏观尺度的行为。在微观尺度上，对气孔行为和功能的定性特征及其与寄主植物潜在生理过程的关系知之甚少。该奖项支持基础研究，以创建以瞬时气孔运动为中心的多尺度动力学建模框架。这项研究的成功将为气孔研究提供一个独特而强大的工具，并为监测和控制植物的生理活动提供一个改变游戏规则的传感装置，开辟和实现广泛的基础生物学研究（如植物对昆虫攻击的防御机制，植物与环境的相互作用）和前沿农业应用（如作物最佳生长控制，基因型到表型的快速转变）。因此，这项研究的结果将有利于美国社会和经济。跨动态系统建模和诊断、微机电系统和植物生物学的多学科研究将有助于吸引和扩大工程和科学领域中代表性不足的群体的参与，并对工程和科学教育产生积极影响。气孔运动的多尺度表征和建模可以为揭示参与气孔调节的内部分子动力学和外部细胞运动之间缺失的联系提供必要的工具，并为绘制和关联气孔及其遗传根源的生物力学进化提供必要的工具。然而，建立这样一个建模框架的科学挑战还有待解决。研究小组将建立一个基于生物物理学的多尺度气孔动力学模型，将亚细胞力学进化与气孔运动过程中的微尺度细胞活动联系起来。建模方法将建立在一种新的原子力显微镜技术上，用于定量绘制单个气孔运动过程中的纳米力学演化，以及一种独一无二的小型化传感器，用于测量气孔运动引起的水蒸气和电势变化。他们还将通过实验识别、评估和优化气孔动力学模型，以玉米和拟南芥为例系统。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。

项目成果

A new high-frequency photoacoustic sensing probe using silicon acoustic delay lines

使用硅声延迟线的新型高频光声传感探头

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2582745
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2021
• 作者: Ustun, Arif Kivanc;Zou, Jun
• 通讯作者: Zou, Jun

Integration of microlenses on surface-micromachined optical ultrasound transducer array to improve detection sensitivity for parallel data readout

将微透镜集成在表面微机械光学超声换能器阵列上，以提高并行数据读出的检测灵敏度

• DOI: 10.1364/ol.476774
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Optics Letters
• 影响因子: 3.6
• 作者: Yan, Zhiyu;Zou, Jun
• 通讯作者: Zou, Jun

Large-scale 2D Surface-Micromachined Optical Ultrasound Transducer (SMOUT) array for 3D computed tomography

用于 3D 计算机断层扫描的大型 2D 表面微机械光学超声换能器 (SMOUT) 阵列

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2649277
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2023
• 作者: Yan, Zhiyu;Zou, Jun
• 通讯作者: Zou, Jun