NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2012

这一行动为2012财年国家植物基因组计划博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持在东道主实验室的研究和培训计划，使该研究员专注于植物基因组学研究，重点放在数量遗传学、现代育种方法和生物信息学上。帕特里克·P·埃杰的这项研究和培训计划的标题是“构建植物新陈代谢网络和识别操纵作物生物合成途径的基因的比较框架”。该奖学金的主办机构是亚利桑那大学，赞助科学家是迈克尔·巴克博士(亚利桑那大学)和迈克尔·弗里林博士(加州大学伯克利分校)。为了开始解决生物学中更复杂的问题(例如，阐明基因与表型的关系以及植物与环境的相互作用)，生物学的下一阶段必须涉及整合科学界可用的丰富的各种生物资源(例如，测序的基因组、基因表达数据、蛋白质数据和代谢数据)。这项研究试图研究代谢网络，即细胞中的一整套生化反应(例如，光合作用、呼吸作用和防御性次生代谢物化合物的生物合成)是如何随着时间的推移而演变的(例如，拓扑结构和含量)，以区分塑料部分和更保守的部分，并最终确定更容易为作物改良而进行修改的子网络。培训目标包括生物信息学、生物化学和植物基因组学。更广泛的影响包括对来自美国的学生进行能力建设和高级培训，以从事植物改良和相关科学(如生理学、数量遗传学和计算生物学)的跨学科研究。推广活动包括开发可视化工具，使植物生物学家能够更容易地在全球网络一级分析基因表达差异，并计算代谢成本差异。此外，该研究员将参加生物信息学入门讲习班，培训本科生和更高级的研究人员基本的计算机编程技能，并使用可用的工具分析和解释各种数据集。

This action funds a National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2012. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow to focus their studies in plant genomics with an emphasis on quantitative genetics, modern breeding approaches, and bioinformatics. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Patrick P. Edger is "Constructing Plant Metabolic Networks and a Comparative Framework to Identify Genes to Manipulate Biosynthetic Pathways in Crops". The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Arizona and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Michael Barker (University of Arizona) and Michael Freeling (University of California - Berkeley). In order to begin addressing more complex questions in biology (e.g. elucidating genotype to phenotype relationships and plant-environmental interactions), the next phase of biology must involve integrating the wealth of diverse biological resources (e.g. sequenced genomes, gene expression data, protein data, and metabolic data) available to the scientific community. This study seeks to investigate how metabolic networks, the complete set of biochemical reactions in the cell (e.g. photosynthesis, respiration, and biosynthesis of defensive secondary metabolite compounds, have evolved over time (e.g. topology and content), to distinguish plastic portions from more conserved sections, and ultimately identify sub-networks that are more amenable to modification for crop improvement. Training objectives include bioinformatics, biochemistry, and plant genomics. Broader impacts include capacity-building and advanced training for students from the United States to engage in interdisciplinary research in plant improvement and associated sciences such as physiology, quantitative genetics, and computational biology. Outreach activities include the development of a visualization tool that will allow plant biologists to more easily analyze gene expression differences at the global network level and to calculate differences in metabolic costs. In addition the Fellow will be participate in introductory bioinformatics workshops that will train both undergraduate students and more advanced researchers in basic computer programming skills and in the use of available tools to analyze and interpret various datasets.