NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Microbial mediation of genotype-phenotype relationships and ecological function of toxic nectar.

这一行动为NSF 2021财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。植物在其植被和花卉中产生复杂的化学物质，在许多层面上影响生态。许多植物生产的化学品对人类社会很重要；它们可能对牲畜有毒，导致农作物疾病，并为药物开发提供天然化学库。虽然这些化合物在营养组织中的后果已经得到了广泛的研究，但人们对花粉和花蜜中的特殊化学物质如何影响植物与传粉者和生活在花中的微生物的相互作用知之甚少。许多花中含有有益和/或致病的真菌和细菌群落，这些真菌和细菌可能会影响传粉者的行为和健康。通过基因组研究、实验和模拟建模的组合，该项目将测试植物基因组、植物化学和传粉者行为之间的联系。在他们的任期内，该研究员将为中学生开发一个符合标准的花蜜微生物教育单位。他们将在之前与非营利性教育合作伙伴的合作基础上，将这个单元提供给里诺和萨克拉门托的学生，提高公众对微生物在授粉中的作用的认识。鉴于植物-微生物-传粉者的相互作用在自然和农业系统中的重要作用，对植物化学如何塑造这些相互作用的基本了解尤为重要。该研究员将专注于一类具有高度生物活性的花蜜化合物--吡咯里西丁生物碱，它是由归化的非本地植物紫毒蛇Echum ants agineum产生的。这位研究员将对三个种群的150种植物的花蜜和植被中的生物碱含量进行表征。结合对这些植物的代谢物图谱和从头基因组分析，他们将识别影响花蜜和叶子中生物碱的遗传多态。在相同的种群中，这位研究员将从Echium和共同开花的物种中收集和分离花蜜微生物。他们将测试Echium收集的微生物是否比其他花蜜微生物更能在有毒生物碱存在的情况下生长。最后，这位研究员将测试微生物生长和花蜜生物碱含量如何交互影响大黄蜂的花蜜消费。在整个过程中，该研究员将接受赞助科学家在微生物学和基因技术方面的广泛培训，这将增加授粉和行为生态学方面的日益增长的技能。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 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Plants produce complex arrays of chemicals in their vegetation and flowers that impact the ecology at many levels. Many plant-produced chemicals are important to human society; they can be poisonous to livestock, cause crop disease, and offer natural chemical libraries for drug discovery. While the consequences of these compounds in vegetative tissues has been extensively studied, much less is known about how specialized chemicals in pollen and nectar impact plants’ interactions with pollinators and the microbes that live in flowers. Many flowers harbor communities of beneficial and/or pathogenic fungi and bacteria that can impact pollinator behavior and health. Through a combination of genomic studies, experiments, and simulation modeling, this project will test the link between plant genomes, plant chemistry, and pollinator behavior. During their tenure the fellow will develop a standards-aligned educational unit on nectar microbes for middle-school students. They will build on previous collaborations with non-profit education partners to deliver this unit to students in Reno and Sacramento, raising public recognition of microbe’s role in pollination. Given the important role of plant-microbe-pollinator interactions in natural and agricultural systems, a basic understanding of how plant chemistry shapes these interactions is particularly important.The fellow will focus on a highly bioactive class of nectar compounds, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, produced by the naturalized non-native plant purple viper’s bugloss, Echium plantagineum. The fellow will characterize the alkaloid content of the nectar and vegetation of 150 plants across three populations. Combining the metabolite profiling with de novo genomic analysis of these plants, they will identify genetic polymorphisms that influence the alkaloids in the nectar and leaves. In the same populations the fellow will collect and isolate nectar microbes from Echium and co-flowering species. They will test whether Echium-collected microbes are better able to grow in the presence of toxic alkaloids than other nectar microbes. Finally the fellow will test how microbial growth and nectar alkaloid content interactively impact nectar consumption by bumblebees. Throughout this process the fellow will receive extensive training in microbiological and genetic techniques from the sponsoring scientists that will add to a growing skillset in pollination and behavioral ecology.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.