SitS: Electrochemical signals to monitor soil microbiome structure and function

该奖项是通过“土壤中的信号(SITS)”征集，这是美国国家科学基金会和美国农业部国家粮食和农业研究所(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。到目前为止，关于土壤微生物组的组成和活动如何与土壤环境中的电化学信号相关联的知识有限。土壤中生物产生的电化学信号可用于推进对地下微生物及其与土壤健康和植物生产力的功能关系的非破坏性监测。土壤微生物群落结构和功能与电化学信号的相关性可以作为传感器。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，以帮助培养一支在数据和模型驱动的土壤科学和工程方面具有专业知识的急需的劳动力。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。土壤微生物群在植物生长和生态系统服务中起着关键作用，与管理的和野生的陆地生境都有关。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。到目前为止，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上。然而，为了微生物群监测、管理和操纵的目的，缺乏能够快速评估群落结构和功能的措施。此外，关于电化学信号、微生物组结构和功能与土壤之间的相关性的知识也很有限。揭示这些关系将提供基础性知识，使监测和操纵植物和土壤微生物群的新方法成为可能。一种新的方法将利用这样一个事实，即生物体进行的大部分新陈代谢都是氧化还原化学。这种化学作用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，并制定在模式农业系统中将电化学信号与微生物组功能联系起来的规则。项目活动包括1)调查土壤中的电子传递机制，以将电化学信号、当地化学条件和微生物群落结构和功能联系起来；2)调查电化学信号、微生物与植物表型和性能之间的反馈；以及3)从微生物组结构和功能与电化学信号、植物表型和传感器之间的高维数据中提取规则。该项目将建立根据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优势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.