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干旱对农作物产量产生不利影响。植物根系与自然生长在土壤中的丛枝菌根真菌的密切联系可以使作物抵抗干旱胁迫。这些真菌和宿主根部之间的关系是互惠互利的，真菌向植物输送矿物质和水，而植物则为真菌提供糖和脂质。这些交换发生在根部的特定细胞内，从而全面促进植物生长。关于植物根细胞如何在不受伤害的情况下寄生真菌，以及这如何影响植物生长，人们知之甚少。将比较番茄和水稻这两种截然不同且重要的作物，以确定它们在如何开始和控制与另一种生物体的有益相互作用方面的相似之处。在干旱期间增强真菌相互作用以产生益处的调节因素将通过育种进行修改。这项研究将产生适合作物的新知识和方法。它将提供用户友好的网络访问工具，以便其他人可以查看根图中的发现结果。 研究生和博士后学者将作为一个团队接受生物和数据科学方面的培训。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融入学生的真实科学体验中。外展活动将使来自不同背景的三年级学生接触植物科学。教育材料将公开分发。需要增加植物产量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，从而限制了植物的生长和产量。丛枝菌根真菌（AMF）共生对于植物向陆地迁移至关重要，并且与这种共生相关的保守途径已被确定。有人提出，植物根系与 AMF 等有益真菌的结合可以提高作物对缺水的适应能力。 AMF共生体的建立以及作物与共生体之间水和养分的相互交换发生在特定细胞内。 在该提案中，将比较番茄和水稻这两种在系统发育上不同且对美国农业至关重要的作物，以确定细胞对 AMF 定植、缺水及其相互作用的特异性反应，以及在细胞分辨率下促进植物生长的保守网络。 将实施捕获响应不同 AMF 诱导子或发育丛枝的细胞子集中的表观基因组和翻译组动态的技术，以及从器官到细胞水平的 AMF 和缺水相互作用的高分辨率调查。将开发和部署尖端的单细胞方法和跨学科数据分析来描述这种跨领域的反应。将使用基因编辑来修改驱动转录因子，以促进减轻缺水对发育的影响并提高农业生产力。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组学数据。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.