NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2022: Rules and Strategies of Plant Microbiomes Under Global Change

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2022财年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对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。全球环境变化广泛影响着从单个细胞到整个生态系统的大量物种。气候变暖、干旱和营养污染等环境破坏会引发植物和微生物的变化。然而，全球变化如何改变这些不同生命形式之间的相互作用还没有得到很好的研究。为了填补这一知识空白，该项目将测试植物与微生物关联的新理论，并利用这项研究的信息对经历气候变化的生态系统做出更好的预测。为了扩大对科学的参与，该研究员将主持研讨会，使不同的社区能够利用工具了解全球变化。该研究员将研究作为生命规则的权衡框架中的微生物产量、资源获取、耐受性和相互作用特征，并将在加利福尼亚州尔湾的洛马岭全球变化实验中应用这一权衡理论来预测几种植物相关环境背景下的微生物组合和功能。通过理论和实验方法的结合，该研究将解决性状权衡是否存在于微生物基因组水平。如果微生物组的组合是由性状的环境选择决定的，如果生活史策略预测在变化的环境中的生态功能。这种类型的分子理论建模方法可以应用于从人类到土壤微生物组的各个系统。这种方法可以揭示潜在的微生物基因组信息和生态学与微生物组组装和功能的关系。这项综合研究将理论、分子数据和生态系统过程联系起来，为减缓和适应气候变化产生具有实用价值的结果。培训目标包括建立全球变化生态学的专业知识，发展计算和理论技能，以及实践包容性教学和指导。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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, 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. Global environmental change widely affects a broad number of species, from individual cells to entire ecosystems. Environmental disruptions such as warming, drought, and nutrient pollution can trigger changes in both plants and microbes. However, how global change might alter the interaction between these different life forms is not well studied. To fill that knowledge gap, this project will test new theory on plant-microbe associations and use the information from this study to make better predictions about ecosystems experiencing climate change. To broaden participation in science, the fellow will lead workshops to empower diverse communities with the tools to understand global change. The fellow will investigate microbial yield, resource acquisition, stress tolerance, and interaction traits in a tradeoff framework as a Rule of Life, and will apply this tradeoff theory to predict microbial assembly and function across several plant-associated environmental contexts at the Loma Ridge Global Change Experiment in Irvine, CA. Using a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches, the research will address whether trait tradeoffs exist at the microbial genomic level, if microbiome assembly is determined by environmental selection on traits, and if life history strategies predict ecological functioning in a changing environment. This type of molecular-theoretical-modeling approach could be applied across systems from humans to soil microbiomes. This approach can reveal how underlying microbial genomic information and ecology relate to microbiome assembly and function. This integrated research bridges theory, molecular data, and ecosystem processes to generate results with practical value for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Training objectives include building expertise in global change ecology, developing computational and theoretical skills, and practicing inclusive teaching and mentoring.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.