CAREER: Plant-in-a-Chip System for Sensing and Modulating Root-Pathogen Interactions

CBET-1150867 Pandey在自然土壤环境中，植物需要不断地对抗各种旨在绕过其多步骤防御机制的病原体。一旦成功感染，病原体可以完全摧毁整个作物种群。通过正确理解植物-病原菌的相互作用，包括行为特征，将有可能开发有效的、可持续的植物病害控制策略。这一职业计划将开发一个新的工程平台来观察、感知和调节植物根与病原菌之间的相互作用。该研究计划将完成以下任务：(I)开发用于拟南芥植物生长和病原菌应用的芯片上植物系统，(Ii)实现利用合成化学物质感测和调节根部生长素(一种重要的植物激素)谱的化学方案，以及(Iii)建立用于感测根系健康和操纵病原菌与根的相互作用的芯片上电子方案。将建立一个自适应图像跟踪程序，以实时观察根系反应。智力优势：由于缺乏微型系统，植物病理学的实验范围仅限于土壤盆栽和培养皿，这些盆栽和培养皿具有较低的时空分辨率，无法充分表征植物与病原体的相互作用。建议的系统承诺在产量(在一个芯片上种植多个植物)、分辨率(成像单个根细胞)、设计灵活性(改变化学和电气环境)和信息内容(实时观察根系反应)方面有巨大的改进。这些研究将补充现有的基因测序工作，从而加快培育抗病原植物的研究。广泛影响：拟议的研究旨在研究一个重要的和被忽视的工程学研究领域？与疾病相关的植物基因的跨界信号和行为功能。这将有助于为某些病原体为什么、如何以及何时入侵某些作物提供关键答案，从而帮助我们设计抗病转基因植物。考虑到寄主-病原体关系的重要性、复杂性和多样性，我们预计拟议的系统将促进遗传学、农学、昆虫学、生物信息学、行为科学和人类健康等学科的知识进步。教育计划是为电气工程本科生开发一条新的生物工程轨道，将学生，特别是女性和未被充分代表的少数民族聚集在一起，进入这个令人兴奋的多学科研究环境。

CBET-1150867PandeyIn the natural soil environment, a plant is constantly required to combat a diverse range of pathogens that aim to bypass its multi-step defense machinery. Upon successful infection, pathogens can completely destroy an entire crop population. Through proper understanding of plant-pathogen interactions, including behavioral traits, it will be possible to develop effective, sustainable control strategies against plant diseases.This CAREER project will develop a new engineering platform to observe, sense, and modulate interactions between plant roots and pathogens. The research plan is to accomplish the following tasks: (i) develop a Plant-in-a-Chip system for the growth of Arabidopsis plants and application of pathogens, (ii) realize chemical schemes for sensing and modulating the auxin (an important plant hormone) profile in roots under pathogenic attack using synthetic chemicals, and (iii) build on-chip electrical schemes for sensing root health and manipulating pathogenic interactions with roots. An adaptive image-tracking program will be built for real-time observation of root responses. Intellectual Merit: The lack of microscale systems has limited the scope of experiments in plant pathology to soil pots and petri-dishes that have low spatiotemporal resolution to adequately characterize plant-pathogen interactions. The proposed system promises a huge improvement in throughput (growing multiple plants on a single chip), resolution (imaging single root cells), design flexibility (altering chemical and electrical environment), and information content (real-time observation of root responses). These studies will complement existing gene sequencing efforts, thereby speeding the research to create pathogen-resistant plants.Broader Impact: The proposed research aims to study an important and neglected area of engineering research ? interkingdom signaling and behavioral functions of disease-related plant genes. This will help provide key answers to why, how and when certain pathogens invade certain crops, thereby helping us engineer disease-resistant transgenic plants. Considering the importance, complexity and diversity of host-pathogen relations, we anticipate the proposed system will advance knowledge in several disciplines such as genetics, agronomy, entomology, bioinformatics, behavioral science, and human health. The educational plan is to develop a novel bioengineering track for electrical engineering undergraduates that will bring together students, particularly females and underrepresented minorities, into this exciting multidisciplinary research environment.