NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Predicting how climate change will impact insect adaptation to host plant resistance

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：预测气候变化将如何影响昆虫对宿主植物抗性的适应

• 批准号: 2109662
• 负责人: Margaret Lewis
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Lewis, Margaret
• 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: 2021-08-01 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2109662&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

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. Insect herbivore evolution is tightly linked to changes in their host plants. Many plants possess defensive traits (e.g., induced production of toxic secondary metabolites) that enable them to naturally tolerate and/or deter insect herbivory. However, fluctuations in trait expression may promote insect adaptations to overcome these defenses (virulence). Climate factors associated with global climate change can disrupt plant defense expression, subsequently altering plant susceptibility to insect herbivores. Whether these changes also affect the development of virulence remains unknown, an important knowledge gap that this project aims to fill. Understanding these evolutionary interactions is critical for preserving global food security. Within agricultural production systems, insect resistant crops enhance plant productivity, but virulence threatens their longevity as a sustainable pest management tool. Results from this project will be broadly disseminated, with outreach efforts focused on increasing public awareness about insect resistant crops. The Fellow will develop and disseminate learning modules to high school students in traditionally underserved groups, and additional outreach to agricultural stakeholders will help growers consider genetically modified and naturally resistant crops when making planting decisions.Using soybeans and soybean aphids as a model system, the project will characterize how one abiotic factor, water stress, impacts aphid adaptation to host plant resistance (HPR). Soybean phytohormone concentrations will be used as a marker to determine how combined aphid and water stress interact to alter HPR expression. The Fellow will then assess how these abiotic-induced changes to soybeans impact aphids by comparing fitness in virulent and susceptible aphids using life table analyses. Concurrent RNA sequencing will also characterize aphid stress gene expression under the different climate scenarios. Finally, experimental mesocosms will test whether water stress alters the frequency of virulence within an aphid population. Collectively, these experiments are expected to directly link host plant climate stress to population level responses in aphids, improving our understanding of the mechanisms by which climate change may facilitate virulence. Throughout this project, the Fellow will expand technical skills through training in molecular biology and bioinformatics. Additional professional skills will be developed through participation in mentorship training programs and outreach to non-academic audiences.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2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式为《生活规则》领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。昆虫食草性的进化与其寄主植物的变化密切相关。许多植物具有防御特性（例如，诱导产生有毒的次生代谢物），使它们能够自然耐受和/或阻止昆虫食草。然而，性状表达的波动可能促进昆虫适应以克服这些防御（毒力）。与全球气候变化相关的气候因子可以破坏植物防御表达，从而改变植物对昆虫食草动物的敏感性。这些变化是否也影响毒力的发展仍然未知，这是该项目旨在填补的一个重要的知识空白。了解这些进化的相互作用对于维护全球粮食安全至关重要。在农业生产系统中，抗虫作物提高了植物生产力，但其毒性威胁到它们作为可持续虫害管理工具的寿命。该项目的成果将广泛传播，外联工作的重点是提高公众对抗虫作物的认识。该研究员将为传统上得不到充分服务的群体的高中生开发和传播学习模块，并向农业利益相关者提供额外的服务，帮助种植者在做出种植决定时考虑转基因和自然抗性作物。该项目将以大豆和大豆蚜虫为模型系统，描述水分胁迫这一非生物因素如何影响蚜虫对寄主植物抗性（HPR）的适应。大豆植物激素浓度将被用作确定蚜虫和水分胁迫如何相互作用以改变HPR表达的标记。然后，该研究员将通过使用生命表分析比较有毒和易感蚜虫的适应性，评估这些非生物诱导的大豆变化如何影响蚜虫。并发RNA测序也将表征不同气候情景下蚜虫胁迫基因的表达。最后，实验中生态系统将测试水分胁迫是否会改变蚜虫种群的毒力频率。总的来说，这些实验有望直接将寄主植物气候胁迫与蚜虫种群水平的反应联系起来，从而提高我们对气候变化可能促进毒性的机制的理解。在整个项目中，研究员将通过分子生物学和生物信息学方面的培训来扩展技术技能。额外的专业技能将通过参加导师培训项目和向非学术受众拓展来发展。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。