BII: Polyploidy: Integration Across Scales and Biological Systems

多倍体，即一个细胞内存在三组或更多组染色体，是基因组、细胞和生物体的普遍特征。多倍体是在100多年前发现的，但我们对多倍体的了解仍然有限，尽管几乎所有的农作物都是多倍体的，许多人体器官(如肝脏、心脏和胎盘)是多倍体的，所有癌症中至少有三分之一是多倍体的。一个共同的主题是，多倍体经常与压力联系在一起，但几乎没有其他一般性的出现，部分原因是从细胞生物学到基因组学、农业、癌症和生态学等不同领域的研究人员很少互动。多倍体整合与创新研究所将为多倍体研究带来一种独特的综合方法，综合分析将揭示多倍体在细胞、生态系统以及植物、动物和真菌中的共性和独特作用。经过精心挑选的生物系统的协调研究计划将作为预测模型的框架，该模型将更广泛地扩展实验工作，对农业、医学、生物多样性保护和生物经济发展产生重要影响。此外，该研究所将通过整合研究、跨学科教育和培训、公共宣传以及使科学工作者多样化的计划，转变对多倍体及其与社会的相关性的科学理解。多倍体发生在细胞、组织、器官和整个生物体的水平上，并最终导致发生在生物尺度和不同生物体之间的变革性下游效应。倍性增加的核型效应(即仅由于DNA含量增加而产生的影响)可能会影响细胞大小、基因表达、基因相互作用网络、蛋白质生产等，产生潜在的积极和消极结果的马赛克。对多倍体细胞和生物体的优势和限制的解释仍然难以捉摸，部分原因是还没有进行广泛的比较。多倍体整合与创新研究所将在酵母、拟南芥、浮萍、衣藻和果蝇中进行协调研究，以测试核心假设，即多倍体存在跨生物组织和生物系统水平的潜在规则。这些模型系统的平行实验将测试特定的假设，这些假设涉及核型效应在整个系统中的共同影响，以及在细胞和生物水平上决定多倍体成功的规则是否最终适用于种群和景观。多倍体的细胞、生物、进化和生态系统层面的后果的这种新的预测和定量框架以前是不可能的，因为对多倍体的研究已经被孤立。与更广泛的科学界的合作将把这一研究范式扩展到许多其他的生命谱系。多倍体固有的跨学科性质反映在一个培训计划中，该计划与研究所的概念研究框架相结合，强调实验和分析方法以及团队科学、数据科学和科学交流方面的技能。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。

Polyploidy, or the presence of three or more sets of chromosomes within a cell, is a widespread feature of genomes, cells, and organisms. Polyploidy was discovered over 100 years ago, but our understanding remains limited, even though nearly all agricultural crops are polyploid, many human organs (for example, liver, heart, and placenta) are polyploid, and at least one-third of all cancers are polyploid. A common theme is that polyploidy is often associated with stress, but few other generalities have emerged, in part because researchers across diverse fields—from cell biology to genomics, agriculture, cancer, and ecology—rarely interact. The Polyploidy Integration and Innovation Institute will bring a unique, synthetic approach to the study of polyploidy, with integrated analyses that will uncover both the commonalities and distinct roles of polyploidy in cells to ecosystems and in plants, animals, and fungi. A coordinated research plan across carefully selected biological systems will serve as a framework for predictive models that will extend the experimental work more broadly, with important consequences for agriculture, medicine, conservation of biodiversity, and development of the bioeconomy. Moreover, the Institute will transform scientific understanding of polyploidy and its relevance for society through integration of research, cross-disciplinary education and training, public outreach, and programs to diversify the scientific workforce. Polyploidy occurs at the levels of cells, tissues, organs, and entire organisms and ultimately results in transformative downstream effects that occur across biological scales and diverse organisms. Nucleotypic effects of increased ploidy (that is, effects due to increased DNA content alone) may impact cell size, gene expression, gene interaction networks, protein production, and more, producing a mosaic of potential positive and negative outcomes. Explanations for the advantages and constraints of polyploid cells and organisms remain elusive, in part because broad-scale comparisons have not been made. The Polyploidy Integration and Innovation Institute will conduct coordinated research in yeast, Arabidopsis, duckweed, Chlamydomonas, and fruit flies to test the central hypothesis that there are underlying rules to polyploidy that act across levels of biological organization and organismal systems. Parallel experiments across these model systems will test specific hypotheses about the common impact of nucleotypic effects across systems and whether the rules that determine polyploid success at the cellular and organismal levels ultimately scale to populations and landscapes. This novel predictive and quantitative framework for the cellular, organismal, evolutionary, and ecosystem-level consequences of polyploidy has not previously been possible because research on polyploidy has been siloed. Collaborations with the broader scientific community will extend this research paradigm to many other lineages of life. The inherently interdisciplinary nature of polyploidy is reflected in a training program that is integrated with the Institute’s conceptual research framework and emphasizes experimental and analytical methods as well as skills in team science, data science, and science communication.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.