NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Leveraging Natural Variation to Understand Desiccation Tolerance in the Resurrection Plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia

这一行动为NSF国家植物基因组计划2019财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持在东道主实验室为该研究员制定的研究和培训计划，该研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与度的计划。玫瑰标记奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是“利用自然变异了解复活植物紫薇的脱水耐受性”。该奖学金的主办机构是密歇根州立大学和开普敦大学(南非)，赞助科学家是罗伯特·范布伦博士和吉尔·法兰特博士。植物受到全球变化、天气模式日益多变以及相关的非生物胁迫的威胁。尤其是缺水，是农业损失的主要原因。为了改善粮食安全，至关重要的是制定战略和新技术，以提高作物的耐水胁迫能力。这一研究项目是基于这样一个前提，即自然耐受植物包含丰富的信息来源，可以为作物改良和生物工程努力挖掘这些信息。该项目的目标是全面研究极耐旱复活植物黄花莲的遗传、生理和生态耐性机制。在培训和指导方面，更广泛的影响包括开发一个国际导师计划，密歇根州立大学和开普敦大学(UCT)的学生将在研究员的指导下合作开展研究活动。外联活动包括一项计划，以提高文化认识，并使当地社区参与种植黄花莲的社会效益，将其用作医药和美容用途的次要化合物。培训目标包括获得植物生理学、生物化学、基因组学、生态学和数量遗传学方面的专业知识。干燥耐受性是一种抗旱性，使组织能够从极端干燥(即低于-100兆帕的绝对含水率)中恢复。填补我们对干燥耐受性理解方面的知识空白，是防止干旱造成的损失和确保全球粮食安全的重要一步。该项目的总体目标是为支持脱水耐受性的细胞、分子和生理机制提供新的见解。具体目标包括：1)在独特的和未被研究的复活植物万里香中建立一个脱水耐性多样性小组；2)表征沿极端水分可利用性梯度发生的浮游植物种群间脱水耐性的表型差异；3)表征光合作用对脱水的响应和保护性次生代谢产物，以深入了解脱水耐性变异的细胞和分子基础；以及4)通过转录组和基因组测序来获得浮游植物的序列资源，用于通过eQTL关联作图来确定干旱响应中变异的目标基因。项目期间产生的所有序列数据将在国家档案馆短读档案(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/))中提供，以供存档。所有产生和/或用于这些研究的种质都将保存和储存在UCT，并根据要求提供。凭证样本将提交给博卢斯药物馆(www.bolus.uct.ac.za/)(南非)。此外，该项目产生的实验结果将存储在FigShare数据库(https://digitalscience.figshare.com/))中，并通过期刊出版物和科学会议上的演示文稿进行传播。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智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Rose Marks is "Leveraging Natural Variation to Understand Desiccation Tolerance in the Resurrection Plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia". The host institutions for the fellowship are Michigan State University and the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Robert VanBuren and Jill Farrant. Plants are threatened by global change, increasing variability in weather patterns, and associated abiotic stress. Water shortage, in particular, is a primary cause of agricultural loss. In order to improve food security, it is critical that strategies and new technologies be developed to enhance water-stress tolerance in crops. This research project is based on the premise that naturally stress tolerant plants comprise a rich source of information that can be mined for crop improvement and bioengineering efforts. The goal of the project is to comprehensively characterize the genetic, physiological, and ecological mechanisms of tolerance in the extremely drought tolerant resurrection plant M. flabellifolia. Broader impacts with respect to training and mentoring include developing an international mentorship program in which students from both Michigan State University and the University of Cape Town (UCT) will collaborate in research activities under the guidance of the Fellow. Outreach activities include a plan to increase cultural awareness and engage local communities in the societal benefits of cultivating M. flabellifolia for its secondary compounds of use in medicinal and cosmetic applications. Training objectives include acquiring expertise in plant physiology, biochemistry, genomics, ecology and quantitative genetics.Desiccation tolerance is a form of drought tolerance that enables tissues to recover from extreme drying (i.e., below an absolute water content of -100 MPa). Filling knowledge gaps in our understanding of desiccation tolerance is an important step towards preventing drought induced losses and ensuring global food security. The overall goal of this project is to provide new insight into the cellular, molecular and physiological mechanisms that underpin desiccation tolerance. Specific aims include: 1) establishing a desiccation tolerance diversity panel in the unique and understudied resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia; 2) characterizing phenotypic differences in desiccation tolerance among M. flabellifolia populations occurring along an extreme water availability gradient; 3) characterizing photosynthetic responses to desiccation and protective secondary metabolites to provide insight into the cellular and molecular basis for variability in desiccation tolerance; and 4) generating sequence resources for M. flabellifolia through transcriptome and genome sequencing for use in identifying target loci for variation in drought response via eQTL association mapping. All sequence data generated during the project will be made available in the NCBI Short Read Archive (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/) for archiving. All germplasm generated and/or used for these studies will be maintained and stored at UCT and made available upon request. Voucher specimens will be submitted to the Bolus Herbarium (www.bolus.uct.ac.za/) (South Africa). In addition, experimental results generated from this project will be deposited at the Figshare data repository (https://digitalscience.figshare.com/) and disseminated through journal publications and presentations at scientific meetings.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.