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

研究启动奖为传统黑人学院和大学的初级和中期职业教师提供支持，他们正在建立新的研究项目或重新指导和重建现有项目。期望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，并使本科生参与研究经验。该奖项授予圣奥古斯丁学院，旨在利用生物化学、计算和分子方法识别和表征植物辅因子上限rna，以揭示植物中的新调控机制。本科生将被纳入该项目，并将获得实验室培训和STEM职业生涯的准备。该项目的总体目标是剖析和重组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）封盖rna和5'-CoA（辅酶A）封盖rna，并研究植物中5'-NAD+封盖rna的去盖机制。这项研究将有助于了解植物5'-NAD+封顶rna和5'-CoA封顶rna作为细胞代谢传感器调节基因表达和/或调节代谢信号通路的功能。这将涉及将5'-NAD+覆盖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，然后进行高通量测序的cDNA合成。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。

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.