NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Investigating the spatiotemporal coordination of cell and chloroplast division

该行动为2022财年美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。在这个项目中，研究员将研究光合生物的细胞内通讯和关键细胞过程的协调。在光合作用过程中，陆地植物和藻类使用一种叫做叶绿体的特殊细胞结构来捕获光能，并将二氧化碳转化为氧气和糖。地球上大约一半的光合作用发生在像藻类这样的单细胞生物中，这使得它们对全球生态系统，包括人类的生存至关重要。许多藻类通过白天生长和夜间分裂来最大限度地利用光。这些藻类通常只有一个大的叶绿体，叶绿体随细胞分裂，这表明叶绿体和细胞其他部分之间的精密通信控制着细胞和叶绿体分裂的时间和方向。细胞如何协调细胞和叶绿体分裂是一个谜，因为叶绿体分裂取决于不同的基因而不是细胞分裂。了解细胞如何协调这些事件将阐明细胞内通讯的一般原理。对叶绿体分裂调控的深入了解也将提高社会利用单细胞光合生物减缓气候变化的能力。该研究员将使用莱茵衣藻来定义单细胞藻类中细胞和叶绿体分裂时空协调的细胞内通讯机制。基于先前的工作，该研究员假设细胞骨架结构介导细胞和叶绿体分裂的空间协调，细胞周期调节因子暂时控制这两个过程。利用crispr介导的基因敲除和荧光标记，研究员将构建菌株并进行活细胞显微镜来测试这些假设。该研究员还将采用双重策略来识别参与细胞和叶绿体分裂协调的新基因和蛋白质：机器人辅助的高通量前向遗传筛选，以及基于邻近的质谱蛋白质标记，使用该过程中已知和新发现的成分。这些项目将促进研究员在新遗传技术和生物化学方面的培训。该研究员设计了一个更广泛的影响项目，通过为研究三角地区的黑人女性生物学博士后开发跨机构指导和支持项目，增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。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, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. In this project, the Fellow will investigate intracellular communication and the coordination of key cellular processes in photosynthetic organisms. During photosynthesis, land plants and algae use specialized cell structures called chloroplasts to capture light energy and convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugars. About half of photosynthesis on earth occurs in single-celled organisms like algae, making them absolutely essential for the global ecosystem, including for human survival. Many algae maximize the use of light by growing during the day and dividing at night. These algae often have a single, large chloroplast that is divided along with the cell, indicating that exquisite communication between the chloroplast and the rest of the cell controls the timing and orientation of both cell and chloroplast division. How cells coordinate cell and chloroplast division is a mystery, because chloroplast division depends on different genes than cell division. Understanding how cells coordinate these events will illuminate general principles of intracellular communication. Insights into the regulation of chloroplast division will also improve society’s capacity to leverage single-celled photosynthetic organisms to mitigate climate change. The Fellow will use Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to define the intracellular communication mechanisms underlying the spatiotemporal coordination of cell and chloroplast division in unicellular algae. Based on prior work, the Fellow hypothesizes that cytoskeletal structures mediate the spatial coordination of cell and chloroplast division, and that cell cycle regulators temporally control both processes. Using CRISPR-mediated gene knockout and fluorescence labelling, the Fellow will construct strains and perform live-cell microscopy to test these hypotheses. The Fellow will also pursue dual strategies to identify novel genes and proteins involved in the coordination of cell and chloroplast division: robotics-assisted, high-throughput forward genetic screens, and proximity-based protein labeling with mass spectrometry, using known and newly identified components involved in the process. These projects will promote the Fellow’s training in new genetic techniques and in biochemistry. The Fellow has designed a broader impacts program that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology by developing a cross-institutional mentoring and support program for Black female postdoctoral fellows in biology in the Research Triangle.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.