Research Initiation Award: Identification and Characterization of Cofactor-Linked RNAs in Plants

研究启动奖为历史悠久的黑人学院和大学中正在建立新的研究项目或重新调整和重建现有项目的初级和中期教师提供支持。预计该奖项有助于提高教师的研究能力和效率，改善所在机构的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究经验。授予圣奥古斯丁学院的奖项旨在利用生化、计算和分子方法来识别和表征植物辅因子封端的 RNA，以揭示植物中的新调控机制。本科生将参与该项目，并获得实验室培训并为 STEM 职业做好准备。该项目的总体目标是剖析和重新连接模式生物中的植物信号，以增强作物对气候和天气变化等环境挑战的适应能力。 目的是从植物中分离和鉴定 5'-NAD（烟酰胺腺嘌呤二核苷酸）加帽 RNA 和 5'-CoA（辅酶 A）加帽 RNA，并检查植物中 5'-NAD 加帽 RNA 的脱帽机制。这项研究将有助于了解植物 5'-NAD 加帽 RNA 和 5'-CoA 加帽 RNA 作为细胞代谢传感器来调节基因表达和/或调节代谢信号通路。这将涉及将 5'-NAD 加帽 RNA 上的末端烟酰胺修饰为适合通过化学酶和点击化学处理进行生物素化的炔烃，然后合成用于高通量测序的 cDNA。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at the home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. The award to Saint Augustine's College intends to identify and characterize plant cofactor capped RNAs using biochemical, computational and molecular approaches to uncover new regulatory mechanisms in plants. Undergraduate students will be included in the project and will gain laboratory training and preparation for STEM careers.The overall goal of this project is to dissect and rewire plant signaling in model organisms to enhance crop resilience to environmental challenges such climate and weather change. The objectives are to isolate and identify 5'-NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) capped RNAs and 5'-CoA (coenzyme A) capped RNAs from plants and to examine de-capping mechanisms of 5'-NAD+ capped RNAs in plants. This study will contribute to the understanding of plant 5'-NAD+ capped RNAs and 5'-CoA capped RNAs functioning as cellular metabolic sensors to regulate gene expression and/or regulate metabolic signaling pathways. This will involve the modification of the terminal nicotinamide on 5'-NAD+ capped RNAs to an alkyne that is suitable for biotinylation through chemoenzymatic and click-chemistry processing followed by cDNA synthesis for high-throughput sequencing.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.