NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Investigating the role of ARGONAUTE and small RNAs in heritable stress memory in plants

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。这项研究试图了解植物如何解释环境压力信号，以及这些信号是如何在世代之间传递的。植物已经进化出复杂的机制来耐受反复的压力，并能为后续的压力为后代做好准备。研究这种传播是如何发生的对于促进科学知识和提供社会效益是重要的，因为了解植物如何快速适应压力环境，如气候变化影响，有助于减轻对粮食安全的挑战。这位研究员将使用经典的遗传学和基因组学技术来研究表观遗传调控，即基因表达的控制，如何影响植物形成逆境记忆的能力，并将应激诱导的表观遗传变化传递给后代。鉴于这项研究与农业的相关性，研究员将通过面向公众的科学交流、推广和教学向不同背景的观众解释这项工作。这项研究将集中在小RNA生物学和ArgAerte蛋白质的作用上，ArgAerte蛋白质是一个高度保守但功能多样化的小RNA沉默效应器家族。拟南芥中有10个Arg匠，每一个都通过与小RNA和辅助因子的相互作用提供独特的和重叠的功能。由于所有的小RNA都依赖于它们与ArgAerte的相互作用来靶向互补的信使RNA和/或DNA进行沉默，所以Argavits是小RNA介导的基因沉默的守门人。小的RNA-ArgAerte相互作用对于生殖系的正常发育、对病毒的防御、对环境胁迫的响应和表观遗传调控是必要的，因为几个Argavite的表达仅限于生殖组织。增加这一复杂性的是，假尿苷修饰的小RNA在胚系中丰富，这可能会改变小RNA-ArgAerte相互作用，从而影响表观遗传。在酵母中，假尿苷修饰的RNA在热胁迫下是动态的，但它们在植物胁迫记忆中的特征尚未得到表征。本研究将通过分析与表观基因组图谱配对的功能缺失突变体，剖析种系精氨酸和伪尿苷RNA在植物逆境记忆形成和遗传中的功能。该研究员将在冷泉港实验室接受这些领域的专家培训，并从他们的世界知名课程中接受培训。扩大参与的努力将包括在纽约市的DNA学习中心进行关于表观遗传调控和生物技术的外展和教学。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. This research seeks to understand how plants interpret environmental stress signals and how these signals are transmitted across generations. Plants have evolved complex mechanisms to tolerate recurring stress and can prime their offspring for subsequent stresses. Investigating how this transmission occurs is important to advancing scientific knowledge and provides societal benefits because understanding how plants can adapt rapidly to stressful environments, such as climate change effects, helps to mitigate challenges to food security. The Fellow will use classical genetics and genomics techniques to investigate how epigenetic regulation, the control of gene expression, affects the ability of plants to form stress memories and transmit stress-induced epigenetic changes to offspring. Given the relevance of the study to agriculture, the Fellow will explain the work to audiences of diverse backgrounds through public-facing science communication, outreach, and teaching. The study will focus on small RNA biology and the role of ARGONAUTE proteins, a highly-conserved yet functionally-diverse family of small RNA silencing effectors. There are 10 ARGONAUTEs in Arabidopsis, each providing unique and overlapping functions through interactions with small RNAs and co-factors. ARGONAUTEs are the gate-keepers of small RNA-mediated gene silencing because all small RNAs are dependent on their interaction with ARGONAUTE to target complementary messenger RNA and/or DNA for silencing. Small RNA-ARGONAUTE interactions are necessary for proper development, defense against viruses, responding to environmental stresses, and epigenetic regulation in the germline, as expression of several ARGONAUTEs are restricted to reproductive tissues. Adding to this complexity, pseudouridine-modified small RNAs are enriched in the germline which may alter small RNA-ARGONAUTE interactions and therefore affect epigenetic inheritance. Pseudouridine-modified RNAs are dynamic under heat stress in yeast, but they have yet to be characterized in plant stress memory. This research will dissect the function of germline ARGONAUTEs and pseudouridine RNA in stress memory formation and inheritance in plants by analyzing loss-of-function mutants paired with epigenomic profiling. The Fellow will receive expert training in these areas at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as well as from their world-renowned courses. Broadening participation efforts will include outreach and teaching about epigenetic regulation and biotechnology at the DNA Learning Center in New York City.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.