RESEARCH-PGR - Adapting Crops to a Harsh Environment: Interplay between Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi, Drought Stress and Plasticity of Plant Architecture

不可预测的气候和持续的干旱对作物产量产生不利影响。植物根系与一种叫做丛枝菌根的真菌密切相关，这种真菌自然生长在土壤中，可以使作物抵抗干旱压力。这些真菌和寄主根部之间的关系是互惠互利的，真菌为植物提供矿物质和水，植物为真菌提供糖和脂质。这些交换发生在根的特定细胞内，并导致植物生长的整体促进。关于植物根细胞如何无害地寄主真菌，以及这如何影响植物生长，我们所知甚少。将比较番茄和水稻这两种非常不同但重要的作物，以确定它们如何开始和控制与另一种生物体的有益相互作用的相似之处。在干旱期间，促进真菌相互作用的调节因子将通过育种加以修改。这项研究将产生适用于农作物的新知识和新方法。它将提供用户友好的网络访问工具，以便其他人可以在根图中查看结果。研究生和博士后将在生物和数据科学方面作为一个团队进行培训。他们将在协作、项目组织和指导他人方面得到指导。将开发一个入门培训计划，将基于团队的数据科学教育整合到学生的真实科学体验中。外展将使来自不同背景的三年级学生接触到植物科学。教育材料将公开分发。植物产量需要增加以满足全球人口的需求。然而，气候变化增加了缺水的频率和持续时间，限制了植物的生长和产量。丛枝菌根真菌（AMF）的共生关系是植物向陆地迁移的关键，与这种共生关系相关的保守途径已经被确定。提出植物根系与AMF等有益真菌的关联可以提高作物对水分亏缺的适应能力。AMF共生关系的建立和作物与共生体之间水分和养分的相互交换发生在特定的细胞内。在本研究中，将比较两种系统发育上不同且对美国农业至关重要的作物——番茄和水稻，以确定细胞对AMF定植、水分亏缺及其相互作用的特异性反应，以及在细胞分辨率上促进植物生长的保守网络。在对不同AMF激发子或形成丛枝反应的细胞亚群中捕捉表观基因组和翻译组动力学的技术，以及从器官到细胞水平的AMF和水亏相互作用的高分辨率调查将被实施。将开发和部署尖端的单细胞方法和跨学科数据分析来分析这种王国间的反应。将利用基因编辑技术修改驱动转录因子，以促进缓解缺水对发育的影响，提高农业生产力。该项目将生成用户友好的网络访问平台，以空间分辨率可视化多领域细胞基因组数据。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。

Unpredictable climate and persistent droughts have an adverse impact on crop yield. Intimate association of plant root systems with fungi called arbuscular mycorrhizae that naturally grow in soil can allow crops to combat drought stress. The relationship between these fungi and the host root is mutually beneficial, with the fungus delivering minerals and water to the plant, and the plant feeding the fungus with sugars and lipids. These exchanges happen within specific cells of the root and result in overall promotion of plant growth. Very little is known about how plant root cells host fungi without harm, and how this influences plant growth. Two very different and important crops, tomato and rice, will be compared to identify similarities in how they begin and control a beneficial interaction with another organism. Regulatory factors that enhance the fungal interaction to a benefit during drought will be modified by breeding. This research will generate new knowledge and methods adapted to crops. It will provide user-friendly web-accessible tools so that others may view the findings in a root map. Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars will be trained as a team in biological and data science. They will be guided in collaboration, project organization and mentoring of others. An introductory training program will be developed that integrates team-based data science education into authentic science experiences for students. Outreach will expose 3rd graders from diverse backgrounds to plant sciences. Educational material will be publicly disseminated. Plant production needs to increase to meet the needs of the global population. However, climate change increases the frequency and duration of water deficit that restricts plant growth and yield. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) symbioses were critical to plant migration to land and conserved pathways associated with this symbiosis have been identified. It is proposed that association of plant root systems with beneficial fungi, like AMF, can improve crop resilience to water deficit. The establishment of AMF symbiosis and the mutual exchange of water and nutrients between crop and symbiont happens within specific cells. In this proposal, two crops that are phylogenetically distinct and critical to US agriculture, tomato and rice, will be compared to identify cell-specific responses to AMF colonization, water deficit and their interaction, and the conserved networks that promote plant growth at cellular resolution. Technologies to capture epigenome and translatome dynamics in the subset of cells responding to distinct AMF elicitors or developing arbuscules and a high-resolution survey of AMF and water deficit interactions from the organ to the cellular level will be implemented. Cutting-edge single cell methodologies and interdisciplinary data analyses will be developed and deployed to profile this inter-kingdom response. Driver transcription factors will be modified using gene editing to facilitate mitigation of the developmental impact of water deficit and increase agricultural productivity. The project will generate user-friendly web-accessible platforms to visualize multi-kingdom cellular ‘omic data at spatial resolution.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.