Collaborative Research: How to manipulate a plant? Testing for conserved effectors and plant responses in gall induction and growth using a multi-species comparative approach.

合作研究：如何操纵植物？

• 批准号: 2305880
• 负责人: Ellen Martinson
• 金额: $ 28.12万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305880&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; How; manipulate; plant

A gall is a tumor-like growth on a plant that is induced by another organism (i.e., bacteria, fungi, nematode, or insects). Insect-induced plant galls represent one of the most amazing and complex interspecific interactions in nature, capturing the interest of naturalists, ecologists and evolutionary biologists for centuries. Increasingly, gall-forming insects also act as economically important agricultural pests, reducing crop yields worldwide. Surprisingly, the general mechanisms behind insect gall induction and growth are unknown. This proposal aims to uncover the evolutionarily conserved molecular mechanisms of gall formation by harnessing the galling system of cynipid wasps on live oaks, in which many species of cynipids successfully gall the same plant. This system allows for powerful natural experiments to test the generality of how galling organisms manipulate plant genomes and to generate new hypotheses for investigating plant control strategies against galling herbivores and other pests that manipulate host plant defense and immunity. Additionally, galling research has great potential for the advancement of genetic engineering because gall-formation involves the simultaneous manipulation of thousands of genes in the plant – not possible with current technologies (e.g., RNAi, CRISPR). During the course of this research the PIs will co-host a seminar series and develop a series of labs with collaborators at Texas Southern University, a historically black college (HBCU); recruit summer undergraduate researchers at University of New Mexico, a federally recognized minority-serving institution; as well as actively participate in public engagement of scientific research in multiple institutions in Houston and Albuquerque.Previous molecular studies on insect-induced plant galls have focused on one species at a time, which has created a patchwork of phylogenetically divergent hosts and galling insects that has made it challenging to identify common underlying mechanisms behind galling. The study system we have developed represents a solution to this problem; wherein seven distinct evolutionary lineages of wasp all form phenotypically unique galls on the same host plant species. This system gives us the power to reduce the noise from different gall phenotypes (e.g., color, hairs, size, starting tissue) to determine the core molecular mechanisms of this interaction. In Aim 1, we will identify potential effector molecules in seven species of cynipid wasps. Through transcriptomes and proteomes, the wasp genes needed to induce gall induction will be identified in the venom gland (responsible for gall induction) and larval salivary glands (responsible for gall growth). In Aim 2, we will determine the core plant response to cynipid gallers. By comparing the gene expression of the multiple gall morphologies to their matched control ungalled tissues throughout development, we can separate out phenotypic variation across galls to identify alterations in core genes and pathways required to initiate and maintain gall growth. In Aim 3, our results in oak will be assessed for conservation in other galling systems by conducting a large meta-analysis with 20+ previous published gall transcriptomes including several agricultural pests on soybean, wheat, rice, grape, and blueberry. This will ensure that our results will inform the entire galling research community.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.

瘿是由另一种生物体诱导的植物上的肿瘤样生长（即，细菌、真菌、线虫或昆虫）。昆虫诱导的植物虫瘿是自然界中最令人惊奇和最复杂的种间相互作用之一，几个世纪以来一直吸引着自然学家、生态学家和进化生物学家的兴趣。越来越多的成瘿昆虫也成为经济上重要的农业害虫，降低了全球作物产量。令人惊讶的是，昆虫瘿诱导和生长背后的一般机制是未知的。该提案旨在通过利用在活橡树上的食蟹猴黄蜂的虫瘿系统来揭示虫瘿形成的进化上保守的分子机制，其中许多种类的食蟹猴成功地虫瘿同一种植物。该系统允许强大的自然实验，以测试如何galling生物操纵植物基因组的一般性，并产生新的假设，调查植物控制策略对galling草食动物和其他害虫操纵宿主植物的防御和免疫。此外，虫瘿研究对基因工程的发展具有巨大的潜力，因为虫瘿的形成涉及同时操纵植物中的数千个基因-这在目前的技术下是不可能的（例如，RNAi，CRISPR）。在这项研究的过程中，PI将共同主办一系列研讨会，并与德克萨斯南方大学的合作者开发一系列实验室，这是一所历史悠久的黑人大学（HBCU）;在新墨西哥州大学招募暑期本科研究人员，这是一所联邦认可的少数民族服务机构;以及积极参与休斯顿和阿尔伯克基多个机构的科学研究的公众参与。对昆虫诱导的植物虫瘿的研究每次集中在一个物种上，这造成了一系列遗传学上不同的宿主和虫瘿昆虫，这使得确定虫瘿背后的共同潜在机制变得具有挑战性。我们已经开发的研究系统代表了这个问题的解决方案，其中七个不同的进化谱系的黄蜂都形成表型独特的虫瘿在同一宿主植物物种。该系统使我们能够减少来自不同胆汁表型的噪音（例如，颜色、毛发、大小、起始组织）来确定这种相互作用的核心分子机制。在目标1中，我们将确定潜在的效应分子在七种cynipid黄蜂。通过转录组和蛋白质组，黄蜂基因需要诱导虫瘿诱导将确定在毒腺（负责虫瘿诱导）和幼虫唾液腺（负责虫瘿生长）。在目标2中，我们将确定核心植物对cynipid gallers的反应。通过在整个发育过程中比较多种虫瘿形态的基因表达与其匹配的对照无虫瘿组织，我们可以分离出虫瘿之间的表型变异，以鉴定启动和维持虫瘿生长所需的核心基因和途径的改变。在目标3中，我们将通过对20多个先前发表的虫瘿转录组进行大型荟萃分析，评估我们在橡树中的结果在其他虫瘿系统中的保护作用，包括大豆，小麦，水稻，葡萄和蓝莓上的几种农业害虫。这将确保我们的成果将告知整个令人难堪的研究界。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。