NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

本行动资助2014财年美国国家科学基金会国家植物基因组计划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。Lily S. b张的研究和培训计划的标题是“植物根系中糖分配的定量成像和数学建模”。该奖学金的主办机构是卡内基科学研究所，赞助科学家是Wolf B. Frommer博士。了解植物膜转运体的生物学特性是吸收和利用水分和养分的第一步，可以促进转基因作物对不利环境条件的耐受性更强，资源利用效率更高。这个项目将产生第一张糖在植物组织中的分布图，并描述它们对遗传和环境扰动的反应。所开发的工具和分析方法可应用于其他代谢物的研究。该项目将为研究员提供植物生理学、定量成像和计算生物学的跨学科培训。此外，该项目将为物理学、计算机科学和工程专业的本科生提供暑期植物生物学研究的机会，鼓励他们将自己专业的原理应用于生物系统的研究。增加植物中储存的糖的数量对于维持对食品和生物燃料不断增长的需求是必要的；然而，糖是如何在植物器官的不同组织之间分布的，人们仍然知之甚少。该项目旨在建立根中糖运输和代谢的定量模型，以描述发育过程中的糖分配，特别强调了解最近发现的SWEET糖转运蛋白家族在这一过程中的作用。植物根系中的糖模式将利用基于荧光蛋白的糖浓度和膜运输活性光学传感器来表征。由此产生的测量结果将与SWEET基因的基因表达和生化特性相结合，以制定糖运输和代谢的预测数学模型。

This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2014. 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 Lily S. Cheung is "Quantitative Imaging and Mathematical Modeling of Sugar Allocation in Plant Roots" The host institution for the fellowship is the Carnegie Institution for Science and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Wolf B. Frommer.Understanding the biology of plant membrane transporters, the first step in the uptake and utilization of water and nutrients, can lead to genetically improved crops that are more tolerant to adverse environmental conditions and use resources more efficiently. This project will produce the first maps of sugar distribution in plant tissues and characterize their response to genetic and environmental perturbations. The tools and analysis methods developed can be applied to the study of other metabolites. This project will provide the fellow with interdisciplinary training in plant physiology, quantitative imaging, and computational biology. Additionally, this project will provide summer opportunities in plant biology research to physics, computer science and engineering undergraduate students who will be encouraged to apply principles from their own majors to the study of biological systems.Increasing the amount of sugars stored in plants is necessary to sustain the growing demand for food and biofuels; yet how sugars are distributed between different tissues within plant organs remains poorly understood. This project seeks to develop quantitative models of sugar transport and metabolism in roots that describe sugar allocation during development, with particular emphasis in understanding the role of the recently discovered SWEET family of sugar transporters in this process. Sugar patterns in plant roots will be characterized using sugar concentration and membrane transport activity optical sensors based on fluorescent proteins. The resulting measurements will be integrated with gene expression and biochemical characterization of SWEET genes to formulate predictive mathematical models of sugar transport and metabolism.