NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Adaptive gene regulation in Mimulus guttatus in locally adapted populations

2020 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：适应当地人群的 Mimulus guttatus 的适应性基因调控

• 批准号: 2010769
• 负责人: Leslie Kollar
• 金额: $ 21.6万
• 依托单位: Kollar, Leslie M
• 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: 2021-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2010769&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 Leslie M. Kollar is "Genomic mechanisms driving adaptive divergence in the yellow monkey flower, Mimulus guttatus". The host institution for the fellowship is the Michigan State University and the sponsoring scientists are Dr. David Lowry and Dr. Chad Niederhuth.The evolution of gene regulation has long been hypothesized to play a key role in the rich diversity present in nature. In the short term, gene expression can change as a result of varying environmental conditions. In the long term however, the evolution of gene regulation involves changes in the sequence which ultimately result in diversity and local adaptation. The goal of this research is to address foundationally important questions regarding the role of adaptive divergence in the evolution of gene regulation at a mechanistic level. This approach is only possible in systems with genomic resources and where local adaptation has been well characterized, such as the yellow monkey flower, Mimulus guttatus. Elucidating how evolution shapes gene regulation in response to environmental factors will advance an understanding of the mechanisms of local adaptation and plant stress responses. Understanding these processes will be critical for the development of resilient regionally-adapted crops to more extreme climatic conditions. This research will also promote mentorship for undergraduate researchers from historically underrepresented groups. The mentoring component will operate under a continuous improvement model, which will focus primarily on incorporating previously published and newly developed methods in universal design for mentoring STEM students in higher education. These students will take part in molecular laboratory protocols, data analyses, and project development in direct support of the research aims. Training objectives for the post-doctoral fellow include building on transcriptomic, epigenomic, and genomic methods along with bolstering bioinformatic skills.To understand how gene expression evolves through the process of adaption, the fellow will study multiple types of adaptive gene regulatory divergence between coastal and inland populations of the yellow monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus. Objective one will evaluate patterns of divergence in the regulatory landscape across developmental stages between the two populations. To establish the locally adaptive differences in development, chromatin and transcriptional changes as well as regulatory sequence variation will be evaluated. Objective two will focus on the identification of the gene regulatory causes of local adaptive differences in tolerance to oceanic salt spray of coastal and inland populations. Damaging salt spray is a well-studied environmental stressor in M. guttatus, and these results will build upon this foundation by identifying underlying regulatory regions and sequence variation. Finally, for objective three, the fellow will examine how stress memory can facilitate differential responses to chronic stressors. This is a phenomenon known as ‘priming’ or ‘acclimation’. The research will focus on whether M guttatus exhibits priming in response to a chronic abiotic stress, oceanic salt spray, and identify under what conditions plants employs this defensive strategy. The fellow will establish the symptoms of priming at the phenotypic level and compare how different lengths of exposure to salt affect gene regulatory responses for the coastal and inland populations. All data, analyses, and biological specimens will be made publicly available to the scientific community through public repositories. Results of the research will be disseminated through journal publications and presentations at national conferences.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.

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。本奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题为莱斯利M。Kollar是“基因组机制驱动黄色猴子花的适应性分歧，Mimulus guttatus”。该奖学金的主办机构是密歇根州立大学，赞助科学家是大卫洛瑞博士和查德尼德胡特博士。基因调控的进化长期以来一直被假设为在自然界丰富的多样性中发挥关键作用。在短期内，基因表达可能会因环境条件的变化而发生变化。然而，从长远来看，基因调控的进化涉及序列的变化，最终导致多样性和局部适应。 本研究的目的是解决有关适应性趋异在基因调控进化中的作用的基础性重要问题。这种方法仅在具有基因组资源的系统中是可能的，并且局部适应性已经得到很好的表征，例如黄色的猴子花，Mimulus guttatus。阐明进化如何塑造基因调控对环境因素的反应将促进对局部适应和植物胁迫反应机制的理解。了解这些过程对于开发适应更极端气候条件的区域性作物至关重要。这项研究还将促进指导本科研究人员从历史上代表性不足的群体。指导部分将在一个持续改进的模式下运作，主要侧重于将以前发布的和新开发的方法纳入指导高等教育STEM学生的通用设计。这些学生将参与分子实验室协议，数据分析和项目开发，以直接支持研究目标。博士后研究员的培训目标包括建立在转录组学，表观基因组学和基因组学方法沿着支持生物信息学技能。为了了解基因表达如何通过适应过程进化，该研究员将研究沿海和内陆种群的黄色猴花，Mimulus guttatus之间的多种适应性基因调控差异。目标一是评估两个人群在不同发育阶段的监管格局差异。为了确定发育中的局部适应性差异，将评价染色质和转录变化以及调控序列变异。目的二将集中于鉴定沿海和内陆种群对海洋盐雾耐受性的局部适应性差异的基因调控原因。盐雾是一种已被广泛研究的环境胁迫因子。这些结果将建立在这个基础上，通过确定潜在的调控区域和序列变异。最后，对于目标三，研究员将研究压力记忆如何促进对慢性压力源的不同反应。这是一种被称为“启动”或“适应”的现象。这项研究将集中在M guttatus是否表现出启动响应慢性非生物胁迫，海洋盐雾，并确定在什么条件下植物采用这种防御策略。该研究员将在表型水平上建立引发的症状，并比较暴露于盐的不同长度如何影响沿海和内陆人群的基因调控反应。所有数据、分析和生物标本都将通过公共资料库向科学界公开提供。研究结果将通过期刊出版物和在全国会议上的演讲传播。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。