NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: The Role of the Damaged-Induced Immune Response in Shaping the Plant Root Microbiome

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。大卫·汤姆斯的这项研究和培训计划的标题是“受损诱导的免疫反应在塑造植物根部微生物群中的作用”。该奖学金的主办机构是不列颠哥伦比亚大学，赞助科学家是Cara Haney博士。由于人口增长、天气模式日益零星和人为造成的土地退化的压力，提高农业生产力和效率极其重要。因此，以保护我们有限耕地的健康的方式改善植物健康和生产力是至关重要的。虽然已知一些细菌和微生物对动植物有害，但许多组成生物体微生物组的细菌和微生物已被证明对健康有重大好处。植物微生物群中的细菌可以促进植物的生长、生产力、对恶劣环境条件的耐受性以及对病虫害的抗性。利用植物和细菌之间的有益相互作用是替代化肥和杀虫剂的理想选择。然而，植物如何促进与细菌的积极联系，同时避免有害的相互作用，人们却知之甚少。这个项目试图了解植物如何在选择有益细菌的同时避开细菌病原体。这个项目的重点是植物如何感知细菌病原体造成的损害，并利用这一点来识别、定位和消除有害细菌，同时保持有益细菌的完好无损。培训目标包括获得细菌学、下一代测序和微流体方面的新技能和知识。更广泛的影响将包括为儿童和成人创建教育电子学习模块，以及对学生的科学指导，以帮助增加与STEM相关领域的多样性。了解植物如何在允许建立微生物组的同时排除病原体，对于不同的宿主-微生物组-病原体相互作用系统具有重要意义。该项目使用了一个由拟南芥及其相关病原体和共生体组成的遗传易处理和高通量的模型系统，对于这些模型系统，存在着多种遗传、分子和细胞生物学工具。此前已有研究表明，植物对细胞损伤的感知可以触发免疫反应。这项研究将检验这样一种假设，即由根部病原体触发的局部伤害信号可以提供线索，使植物能够区分病原微生物和共生微生物。初步数据表明，植物条件病原菌是已知共生菌的近亲，可以在根上诱导伤害反应。这项研究的第一个目的是将单细胞定量微流控技术与微生物群落生态学相结合，以了解损伤诱导的免疫信号如何塑造植物微生物群相互作用。第二个目标是将正向遗传学与植物生理学和细胞生物学相结合，以确定有益的微生物如何调节植物免疫信号。总而言之，这些目标将确定植物免疫系统如何区分有益微生物和病原微生物，以最终塑造健康的微生物群。面对不断增长的人口和不断变化的气候，这些知识对于通过植物育种计划提高农业产量至关重要，该计划同时增强了植物的抗病能力，并改善了与有益微生物的相互作用。该项目产生的数据将在NCBI等公共储存库中获得，并将在接受进入同行评议的期刊之前在线上传到预印服务器(BioRxiv.org)。关键词：根际、微生物群、植物免疫、植物防御、拟南芥、显微镜、微流体、潮湿、PAMP、细胞损害该奖项反映了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 David Thoms is "The Role of the Damaged-Induced Immune Response in Shaping the Plant Root Microbiome". The host institution for the fellowship is the University of British Columbia and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Cara Haney.Improving agricultural productivity and efficiency is of extreme importance due to the pressures of a growing population, increasingly sporadic weather patterns, and human-induced land degradation. Therefore, improving plant health and productivity in a manner that preserves the health of our limited arable land is of utmost importance. While some bacteria and microbes are known to be harmful to plants and animals, many that make up an organism's microbiome have been shown to provide significant health benefits. Bacteria present in the plant microbiome can promote plant growth, productivity, tolerance to harsh environmental conditions, and resistance to pests and pathogens. Taking advantage of the beneficial interactions between plants and bacteria is an ideal alternative to chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides. However, how plants promote positive associations with bacteria while avoiding harmful interactions is poorly understood. This project seeks to understand how plants select for beneficial bacteria while simultaneously evading bacterial pathogens. This project will focus on how plants can sense damage caused by bacterial pathogens and use that to identify, target, and eliminate harmful bacteria while leaving the beneficial bacteria intact. Training objectives include acquiring new skills and knowledge in bacteriology, next-generation sequencing, and microfluidics. Broader impacts will include the creation of educational electronic learning modules for children and adults along with the scientific mentorship of students to help increase the diversity in STEM related fields.Understanding how plants exclude pathogens while allowing establishment of a microbiome is of major importance for diverse host-microbiome-pathogen interaction systems. This project uses a genetically tractable and high-throughput model system consisting of Arabidopsis and its associated pathogens and commensals, for which a multitude of genetic, molecular, and cell biology tools exist. It has previously been shown that plant sensing of cellular damage can trigger an immune response. This research will test the hypothesis that a localized damage signal triggered by a root pathogen could provide a cue that allows plants to distinguish pathogenic from commensal microbes. Preliminary data indicates that a plant opportunistic pathogen, that is a close relative of a known commensal, can induce a damage response on roots. The first aim of this research blends single-cell quantitative microfluidics with microbiome community ecology to understand how damage-induced immune signaling shapes plant microbiome interactions. The second aim combines forward genetics with plant physiology and cell biology to determine how beneficial microbes modulate plant immune signaling. Collectively these aims will identify how a plant immune system distinguishes between beneficial and pathogenic microbes to ultimately shape a healthy microbiome. In the face of a rising population and changing climate, this knowledge is essential for improving agricultural outputs via plant breeding programs that simultaneously bolster plant disease resistance and improve interactions with beneficial microbes. The data generated by this project will be available in public repositories such as NCBI and will be uploaded online onto a preprint server (bioRxiv.org) prior to acceptance into a peer-reviewed journal.Keywords: rhizosphere, microbiome, plant immunity, plant defense, Arabidopsis, microscopy, microfluidics, DAMP, PAMP, cell damageThis 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.