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

该行动资助了2021财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，即调查基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。这项研究旨在了解植物如何解释环境压力信号以及这些信号如何跨代传递。植物已经进化出复杂的机制来耐受反复出现的压力，并可以为后代提供后续压力。调查这种传播是如何发生的，对于推进科学知识和提供社会效益非常重要，因为了解植物如何快速适应压力环境，如气候变化的影响，有助于减轻粮食安全面临的挑战。研究员将使用经典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，如何影响植物形成压力记忆的能力，并将压力诱导的表观遗传变化传递给后代。考虑到这项研究与农业的相关性，研究员将通过面向公众的科学传播，宣传和教学向不同背景的观众解释这项工作。该研究将重点关注小RNA生物学和ARGONAUTE蛋白的作用，ARGONAUTE蛋白是一个高度保守但功能多样的小RNA沉默效应子家族。拟南芥中有10个ARGONAUTE，每个ARGONAUTE通过与小RNA和辅因子的相互作用提供独特和重叠的功能。ARGONAUTE是小RNA介导的基因沉默的守门人，因为所有小RNA都依赖于它们与ARGONAUTE的相互作用来靶向互补信使RNA和/或DNA进行沉默。小RNA-ARGONAUTE相互作用对于正常发育、防御病毒、应对环境应激和生殖系中的表观遗传调控是必要的，因为几种ARGONAUTE的表达仅限于生殖组织。除了这种复杂性，假尿苷修饰的小RNA在种系中富集，这可能会改变小RNA-Argonaute相互作用，从而影响表观遗传。假尿苷修饰的RNA在酵母中的热胁迫下是动态的，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，剖析生殖系ARGONAUTEs和假尿苷RNA在植物胁迫记忆形成和遗传中的功能。研究员将在冷泉港实验室接受这些领域的专家培训，并参加他们世界知名的课程。扩大参与的努力将包括在纽约市的DNA学习中心进行外展和关于表观遗传调控和生物技术的教学。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。

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.