NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Characterizing Ecological and Genetic Mechanisms of Hybrid Vigor in Boechera

本行动资助2023财年美国国家科学基金会植物基因组生物学博士后研究奖学金。该奖学金支持奖学金获得者在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该奖学金获得者还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。Gabrielle Sandstedt的研究和培训计划的标题是“调查自然界杂交活力的遗传和生态基础”。该奖学金的主办机构是犹他州立大学，赞助科学家是dr。凯瑟琳·拉什沃斯和艾米丽·约瑟夫。植物育种的一个关键问题是确保受气候变化影响的世界的粮食安全。解决这个问题的一种方法是培育具有遗传差异的植物，以创造出在生存和繁殖方面优于其亲本的杂交植物，这种现象被称为杂交活力。虽然杂交活力导致了许多杂交作物的形成，但杂交作物如何应对不断变化的环境尚不清楚。这项工作利用了Boechera，一个野花系统，加深了对自然界杂交活力的遗传学和生态学的理解。这些知识可以用于确保粮食供应。此外，这项研究将通过参与支持来自不同背景的本科生的项目，如犹他州立大学的美洲原住民暑期导师项目，促进学生在学术界的公平机会。这项研究还提供了宝贵的机会，引发公众讨论研究在开发满足不断增长的人口需求的作物方面的作用。该研究员将协调这些讨论，并在犹他州立大学主办的长期科学讲座系列Science Unwrapped中提供学习活动。本研究的目的是确定促进杂交活力的生态变量和遗传机制。为了确定关键环境变量对杂交活力的影响，将两种Boechera品种的亲本系和杂交组合以及野生收集的杂交种种植在一个可操作的田间实验中并测量适应性。下一个目标是利用自然杂交和新生杂交的基因组和转录组测序数据来确定杂交活力的遗传机制。这包括描述Boechera物种内遗传负荷的分布特征，检查杂种中掩盖这些等位基因的杂合性是否预测了不同环境下的适应性，以及确定杂种活力表型背后的差异基因表达如何在不同环境下发生变化。这项研究将产生广泛的数据，包括种子收集、植物组织样本、适应性和性状测量（将提交到https://datadryad.org），以及几种类型的基因组序列数据（将在https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra上提供）。总之，这些数据将揭示有助于杂交活力的生态和遗传因素，同时提供大量的生态和遗传资源。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 Plant Genome Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Gabrielle Sandstedt is "Investigating the genetic and ecological basis of hybrid vigor in nature". The host institution for the fellowship is Utah State University and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Catherine Rushworth and Emily Josephs. A critical concern for plant breeding is ensuring food security in a world impacted by climate change. One approach to this problem is breeding genetically divergent plants to create hybrids that outperform their parents in survival and reproduction, a phenomenon called hybrid vigor. While hybrid vigor has led to the formation of many hybrid crops, it is not understood how hybrids will respond to changing environments. This work utilizes Boechera, a wildflower system to deepen an understanding of the genetics and ecology of hybrid vigor in nature. Such knowledge can be implemented to secure the food supply. Additionally, this research will allow to promote equitable opportunities for students in academia by participating in programs that support undergraduates from diverse backgrounds, such as Utah State University's Native American Summer Mentorship Program. The research also presents valuable opportunities initiating public discussions on the role of research in developing crops that meet the needs of a growing population. The Fellow will coordinate these discussions and provide learning activities at the longstanding scientific lecture series Science Unwrapped, a science outreach program hosted by Utah State University.The purpose of this research is to identify ecological variables and genetic mechanisms that facilitate hybrid vigor in nature. To pinpoint the effects of key environmental variables on hybrid vigor, parental lines and hybrid combinations of two Boechera species, along with wild-collected hybrids, will be planted in a manipulative field experiment and measured for fitness. The next objective uses genomic and transcriptomic sequencing data of natural hybrids and de novo crosses to determine the genetic mechanisms involved in hybrid vigor. This includes characterizing the distribution of genetic load within Boechera species, examining whether heterozygosity masking these alleles in hybrids predicts fitness across environments, and determining how differential gene expression underlying hybrid vigor phenotypes varies across environments. The research will generate extensive data, including seed collections, plant tissue samples, fitness and trait measurements (which will be submitted to https://datadryad.org), and several types of genomic sequence data (which will be made available on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra). Together, these data will reveal ecological and genetic factors that contribute to hybrid vigor while providing substantial ecological and genetic resources.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.