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

2020 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：迈向有复原力的作物：了解洪水恢复压力与植物免疫力之间的相互作用

• 批准号: 2009062
• 负责人: Elaine Yeung
• 金额: $ 21.6万
• 依托单位: Yeung, Elaine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-03-01 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2009062&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

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.

本行动资助NSF国家植物基因组计划2020财年生物学博士后研究奖学金。该奖学金支持奖学金获得者在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该奖学金获得者还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。Elaine Yeung的研究和培训计划的标题是“走向抗灾作物：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的Rothamsted研究所，赞助科学家是Frederica Theodoulou教授和Kostya Kanyuka博士。与气候变化有关的日益增多的洪水事件已经破坏了全球农作物。为了满足世界不断增长的人口所预测的营养需求，开发抗洪能力更强的作物至关重要。对植物抗逆性机制的科学研究大多集中在单一的胁迫源上，但植物在现实条件下会经历多种胁迫。洪水降低了水下植物的含氧量，这通常会导致能源枯竭。即使在洪水之后，无法补充这些资源可能会导致缓慢恢复的植物容易受到昆虫或植物疾病的攻击。据推测，具有较好抗洪能力的植物，其维持良好的能量状态可以改善洪水后的恢复，具有较强的抗病性。因此，这项研究将是第一个全面解决洪水和植物病害这两个重要农业问题的综合影响的研究之一，最终旨在通过加强作物植物洪水后的疾病管理来满足世界日益增长的粮食需求。该研究金还将在theodorou教授和Kanyuka博士的双重指导下，为有抱负的独立研究人员提供可转移的软技能和技术技能培训，以促进他们未来在植物科学领域的职业发展。研究人员将接受与项目相关的特定科学技能培训，同时培养一系列专业技能，包括教学和指导学生以及有效的项目管理。洛桑研究所还将支持公众参与和科学传播活动，其目标是提高人们对通过生物技术进行植物育种的承诺的认识，并从小就激励下一代科学家。该研究将利用自然变化作为研究洪水后恢复与生物抗逆性之间的串扰的起点。将比较耐涝和不耐涝小麦品种（Triticum aestivum）和不同基因型模式双子叶拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）。这两个物种在抗洪能力和病原体反应方面表现出广泛的自然差异。两种病原体将被测试：一种是在小麦中引起广泛传播的小麦黑穗病（STB）的真菌酵母（Zymoseptoria tritici），另一种是感染拟南芥（Arabidopsis）的模式致病菌丁香假单胞菌pv番茄（Pst） DC3000。洪水后的植物免疫将通过基于质谱的蛋白质组学（监测蛋白质动力学，特别是防御相关蛋白质）、分子生理学和突变株和转基因株的病原体反应的新组合进行评估，这些突变株和转基因株由瞬时病毒诱导的基因沉默（VIGS）或病毒介导的蛋白质过表达（VOX）测定产生。科学成果将尽可能发表在开放获取期刊上，数据将存入黄金标准的社区数据库。生产的转基因拟南芥和小麦品系将在项目完成后存入种子库，并应要求免费分发。研究人员将遵循FAIR（可查找、可访问、可互操作、可重用）数据原则。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。