SitS: Electrochemical signals to monitor soil microbiome structure and function

该奖项是通过“土壤信号（SitS）”征集活动颁发的，该征集活动是美国国家科学基金会与美国农业部国家食品和农业研究所（USDA NIFA）之间的合作伙伴关系。土壤健康反映了土壤支持植物生长和其他生态系统的能力。迄今为止，关于土壤微生物组组成和活动如何与土壤环境中的电化学信号相关的知识有限。土壤中生物体产生的电化学信号可用于推进对地下微生物组及其与土壤健康和植物生产力的功能关系的无损监测。土壤微生物组结构和功能与电化学信号之间的相关性可以用作传感器。这种传感器可用于实时预测和控制土壤健康，以提高植物生产力。该项目将培训微生物电化学、微生物生态学和组学以及数据科学领域的本科生和研究生，以帮助培养急需的具有数据和模型驱动土壤科学与工程专业知识的劳动力。如果成功，这项工作将开发工具以新的方式支持未来的生态系统研究，并通过为可持续农业决策提供更多支持来帮助保护国家的粮食安全。 土壤微生物组在与管理和野生陆地栖息地相关的植物生长和生态系统服务中发挥着关键作用。由于高度的生物多样性和空间异质性，该微生物组是最具挑战性的研究系统之一。迄今为止，大多数工作都集中在剖析微生物组内以及微生物组与植物宿主之间相互作用的基因组和代谢基础。然而，缺乏能够快速评估群落结构和功能以用于微生物组监测、管理和操作的测量方法。此外，关于电化学信号、微生物组结构和功能以及土壤之间的相关性的知识有限。揭示这些关系将提供基础知识，从而实现监测和操纵植物和土壤微生物组的新方法。一种新颖的方法将利用生物体进行的大部分新陈代谢是氧化还原化学这一事实。这种化学反应可以通过细胞外电子转移——电化学信号来测量。该项目的目标是了解植物-土壤-微生物系统中的电化学信号，并制定将电化学信号与模型农业系统中微生物组功能相关的规则。该项目活动包括 1) 研究土壤中的电子传递机制，将电化学信号、当地化学条件以及微生物群落结构和功能联系起来； 2）电化学信号、微生物组和植物表型和性能之间的反馈研究； 3）从高维数据中提取规则，将微生物组结构和功能与电化学信号以及植物表型和传感器相关联。该项目将建立从电化学信号预测微生物组结构和功能的基础知识，为更深入地了解土壤微生物组活动和土壤健康铺平道路。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。

This award was made through the "Signals in the Soil (SitS)" solicitation, a collaborative partnership between the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA). Soil health reflects the ability of soil to support both plant growth and other ecosystems. To date, there is limited knowledge on how soil microbiome compositions and activities are associated with electrochemical signals in the soil environment. Electrochemical signals produced by organisms in soil can be used to advance non-destructive monitoring of belowground microbiomes and their functional relationships to soil health and plant productivity. The correlations between soil microbiome structure and function and electrochemical signals can be used as a sensor. Such a sensor can be used to predict and control soil health in real-time to improve plant productivity. This project will train undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of microbial electrochemistry, microbial ecology and -omics, and data science to help generate a much needed workforce with expertise in data- and model-driven soil science and engineering. If successful, this work will develop tools to support future ecosystem research in new ways and help protect the Nation’s food security by enabling more support for sustainable agriculture decisions. The soil microbiome plays critical roles in plant growth and ecosystem services with relevance to both managed and wild terrestrial habitats. This microbiome is one of the most challenging systems to study due to high biological diversity and spatial heterogeneity. Most work to date focused on dissecting the genomic and metabolic basis of interactions within the microbiome and between the microbiome and plant hosts. However, there is a lack of measurements that would enable rapid assessment of community structure and function for the purposes of microbiome monitoring, management, and manipulation. In addition, there is limited knowledge on the correlations between electrochemical signals, microbiome structure and function, and soil. Uncovering these relationships will provide foundational knowledge that will enable new ways of monitoring and manipulating plant and soil microbiomes. One novel approach will take advantage of the fact that much of metabolism conducted by living organisms is redox chemistry. This chemistry is measurable through extracellular electron transfer–electrochemical signals. The project goal is to understand electrochemical signals in plant-soil-microbe systems and develop rules relating electrochemical signals to microbiome function in a model agricultural system. The project activities include 1) investigation of electron transfer mechanisms in soil to link electrochemical signals, local chemical conditions, and microbial community structure and function; 2) investigation of feedbacks between electrochemical signals, microbiomes and plant phenotypes, and performance; and 3) extraction of rules from high-dimensional data correlating microbiome structure and function to electrochemical signals and plant phenotypes and sensor. This project will build the fundamental knowledge to predict microbiome structure and function from electrochemical signals, paving the way for more in-depth understanding of soil microbiome activity and soil health.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.