NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Towards resilient crops: understanding the interaction between flooding-recovery stress and plant immunity

这一行动为NSF国家植物基因组计划2020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。Elaine Yeung这一奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是“走向有弹性的作物：了解洪水-恢复压力和植物免疫之间的相互作用。”该奖学金的主办机构是英国Rothamsted Research，赞助科学家是Frederica Theodoulou教授和Kostia Kanyuk.博士。与气候变化有关的日益增多的洪水事件已经损害了全球农作物。为了满足世界不断增长的人口预计的营养需求，开发对洪水的耐受性更强的作物至关重要。植物耐逆性机制的科学研究大多集中在单一胁迫源上，而植物在现实环境中会经历多重胁迫。洪水会降低水下植物的氧气水平，这往往会导致能源资源枯竭。即使在洪水过后，无法补充这些资源也可能导致缓慢恢复的植物容易受到昆虫或植物疾病的攻击。具有更好的耐涝能力的植物，即保持良好的能量状态改善了洪灾后的恢复，被假设为具有更好的抗病能力。因此，这项研究将是第一批全面解决洪灾和植物病害这两个重要农业问题的综合影响的研究之一，最终目的是通过加强农作物洪灾后的疾病管理来满足世界日益增长的粮食需求。该奖学金还将有助于这位有抱负的独立研究人员的专业发展，通过培训可转移的软和技术技能，在Theodoulou教授和Kanyuka博士的双重指导下，加强未来在植物科学方面的职业生涯。研究人员将接受与该项目相关的具体科学技能方面的培训，同时开发一系列专业技能，包括教学和指导学生以及有效的项目管理。Rothamsted Research还将支持公众参与和科学交流活动，目标是提高人们对通过生物技术育种植物的前景的认识，并从小激励下一代科学家。这项研究将利用自然变异作为研究洪灾后恢复和生物抗逆性之间的串扰的起点。比较耐淹和不耐淹的小麦品种和模式双子叶拟南芥的不同基因型。这两个物种在耐洪性和病原菌反应方面都表现出广泛的自然变异。将测试两种病原体：在小麦中引起广泛疾病的小麦发酵霉菌(ZymosepVictoria tritici blotch，STB)和侵染拟南芥的模式致病细菌--丁香假单胞菌番茄假单胞菌(Pst)DC3000。通过瞬时病毒诱导的基因沉默(VIGS)或病毒介导的蛋白过度表达(Vox)检测产生的突变株系和转基因株系中的分子生理学和病原菌反应，将通过基于蛋白质组学(特别是防御相关蛋白的蛋白质动态监测)、分子生理学和病原体反应的一种新的组合来评估淹水后植物的免疫力。科学成果将尽可能发表在开放获取的期刊上，数据将存储在黄金标准的社区数据库中。转基因拟南芥和小麦品系将在项目完成后存入种子库，并在提出要求时免费分发。研究人员将遵循公平(可查找、可访问、可互操作、可重复使用)数据的原则。该奖项反映了NSF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 2020. 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 Elaine Yeung is “Towards resilient crops: understanding the interaction between flooding-recovery stress and plant immunity.” The host institution for the fellowship is Rothamsted Research, UK and the sponsoring scientists are Prof. Frederica Theodoulou and Dr. Kostya Kanyuka.Increasing flooding events linked to climate change have damaged crops globally. To meet the predicted nutritional needs of the world’s growing population, developing crops with improved tolerance to flooding is vital. Scientific research on plant stress tolerance mechanisms has mostly focused on single stressors, but plants experience multiple stresses in real world conditions. Flooding decreases oxygen levels for plants underwater, which often contributes to depleted energy resources. Even after flooding, the inability to replenish these resources could cause slowly recovering plants to be vulnerable to attacks from insects or plant diseases. Plants with a better flooding tolerance in which well-maintained energy status improves post-flooding recovery are hypothesized to have superior resistance to disease. This research will therefore be one of the first to comprehensively address the combined effects of two important agricultural problems, flooding and plant disease, ultimately aiming to meet the world’s growing food demand through enhanced disease management after flooding in crop plants. The fellowship will also contribute to the professional development of the aspiring independent researcher, with training in transferrable soft and technical skills to enhance a future career in plant sciences under the dual mentorships of Prof. Theodoulou and Dr. Kanyuka. The researcher will be trained in specific scientific skills relevant to the project, while developing a portfolio of professional skills including teaching and mentoring students and effective project management. Rothamsted Research will also support public engagement and science communication activities, with goals of raising awareness of the promises of plant breeding through biotechnology and inspiring the next generation of scientists from an early age.The research will exploit natural variation as a starting point for investigating the crosstalk between post-flooding recovery and biotic stress tolerance. Comparisons will be made between flooding-tolerant and -intolerant cultivars of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and different genotypes of the model dicot Arabidopsis thaliana. Both species exhibit extensive natural variation in flooding tolerance and pathogen responses. Two pathogens will be tested: the fungus Zymoseptoria tritici that causes a widespread disease Septoria tritici blotch (STB) in wheat and Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato (Pst) DC3000, a model pathogenic bacterium infecting Arabidopsis. Post-flooding plant immunity will be assessed with a novel combination of mass spectrometry-based proteomics (to monitor protein dynamics especially for defense-related proteins), molecular physiology, and pathogen responses in mutant and transgenic lines generated with transient virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) or virus-mediated protein overexpression (VOX) assays. Scientific results will be published wherever possible in open access journals and data will be deposited in gold-standard community databases. Transgenic Arabidopsis and wheat lines produced will be deposited in a seed bank upon project completion and be freely distributed when requested. The researcher will be guided by FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, re-usable) data principles.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.