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

该行动资助了2020财年NSF国家植物基因组计划生物学博士后研究奖学金。该研究金支持研究员在东道实验室的研究和培训计划，研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。这项奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是“走向弹性作物：理解植物恢复压力和植物免疫力之间的相互作用”。该奖学金的主办机构是英国的Rothamsted Research，赞助科学家是Frederica Theodoulou教授和Kostya Kanyuka博士。为了满足世界不断增长的人口的预期营养需求，开发具有更好的耐洪水能力的作物至关重要。关于植物胁迫耐受机制的科学研究大多集中于单一胁迫，但植物在真实的世界条件下经历多种胁迫。洪水降低了水下植物的氧气水平，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。具有较好的耐淹性的植物，其中维持良好的能量状态改善了淹水后的恢复，被假设为具有上级抗病性。因此，这项研究将是第一个全面解决两个重要的农业问题，洪水和植物疾病的综合影响，最终旨在通过加强作物洪水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有抱负的独立研究人员的专业发展，在可转移的软技能和技术技能方面进行培训，以在Theodoulou教授和Kanyuka博士的双重指导下加强植物科学的未来职业生涯。研究人员将接受与项目相关的特定科学技能培训，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。洛桑研究中心还将支持公众参与和科学交流活动，旨在提高人们对通过生物技术进行植物育种的承诺的认识，并从早期开始激励下一代科学家。该研究将利用自然变异作为研究洪水后恢复和生物胁迫耐受性之间相互作用的起点。将在小麦（Triticum aestivum）的耐腐和不耐腐品种与模式双子叶植物拟南芥的不同基因型之间进行比较。这两个物种表现出广泛的自然变化的耐淹性和病原体的反应。将检测两种病原体：在小麦中引起广泛疾病的三裂壳针孢菌斑点病（STB）的真菌三裂壳针孢菌（Zymoseptoria triacetylum）和番茄假单胞菌致病变种（Pseudomonaslingae pv tomato）（Pst）DC 3000，一种感染拟南芥属的模式病原细菌。洪水后的植物免疫力将进行评估与基于质谱的蛋白质组学（以监测蛋白质动力学，特别是防御相关蛋白），分子生理学和病原体的反应，在突变体和转基因株系产生的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）测定的新组合。科学成果将尽可能在开放获取期刊上发表，数据将存放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，并在需要时免费分发。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.