NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

该行动资助了2014财年NSF国家植物基因组计划生物学博士后研究奖学金。该研究金支持研究员在东道实验室的研究和培训计划，研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。米歇尔·阿夫卡米（Michelle Afkhami）的研究和培训计划的标题是“多重互利效应：将功能基因组学与植物-微生物相互作用中的互利多样性生态学联系起来”。“该研究金的主办机构是密歇根州立大学和多伦多大学，赞助科学家是Maren弗里森博士、Yair Shachar-Hill博士和John Stinchcombe博士。 培训目标包括将研究员的研究从成对扩展到多物种互惠，并获得最先进的分子和基因组学技术的培训，如高通量测序和数据分析。除了为农业、保护和恢复实践提供信息外，这项研究的更广泛影响包括指导来自不同背景的本科生，开发儿童教育模块，以及为公众撰写在线科学文章。作物育种专注于高施肥下的高植物产量。然而，这些做法既损害环境，也损害人类健康。为了应对可持续地为不断增长的人口提供营养的挑战，需要高性能的作物和饲料植物，需要最少的投入。宿主植物和微生物之间的互利关系-所有生物体从中受益的物种相互作用-为实现这一目标提供了一个关键途径。以前的研究集中在成对的互惠（一个单一的主机和合作伙伴），但在自然和农业生态系统中的生物体往往与许多互惠同时互动。为了提高农业产量，需要进行研究，阐明多物种互利关系如何影响植物的表现。这项研究结合了生态学和尖端的下一代基因组技术，研究与多个合作伙伴的联系如何影响重要的粮食和饲料植物的近亲蒺藜苜蓿。M.蒺藜属与两组通过增加营养供应而有益于植物的微生物相关联：菌根真菌（增强磷吸收的真菌）和根瘤菌（固定大气氮以供植物消耗的细菌）。使用因子实验，全基因组关联映射和转录组学，这项研究将研究微生物的组合如何影响植物性能，揭示这些影响的基因，并确定基因表达如何受到多物种互惠的影响。

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 Michelle Afkhami is "Multiple Mutualist Effects: Linking Functional Genomics to the Ecology of Mutualist Diversity in Plant-microbe Interactions." The host institutions for the fellowship are Michigan State University and the University of Toronto, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Maren Friesen, Yair Shachar-Hill and John Stinchcombe. Training objectives include expanding the Fellow's research from pairwise to multispecies mutualism and gaining training in state-of-the-art molecular and genomics technologies, such as high-throughput sequencing and data analysis. In addition to informing agriculture, conservation and restoration practices, broader impacts of this research include mentoring of undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, development of educational modules for children, and online scientific writing for the public.Crop breeding has focused on high plant yield under high fertilization. However, these practices damage both the environment and human health. To meet the challenge of sustainably providing nutrition for growing human populations, high-performing crop and forage plants that require minimal inputs are needed. Mutualisms -- species interactions in which all organisms benefit -- between host plants and microbes provide a key avenue for meeting this goal. Previous research has focused on pairwise mutualisms (a single host and partner), but in both natural and agro-ecosystems organisms often interact with many mutualists simultaneously. To improve agricultural outputs, research elucidating how multi-species mutualisms impact plant performance is required. This research combines ecological and cutting-edge next generation genomic techniques to study how associating with multiple partners impacts Medicago truncatula, a close relative of important food and forage plants. M. truncatula associates with two groups of microbes that benefit plants by increasing nutrient supply: mycorrhizal fungi (fungi that enhance phosphorus uptake) and rhizobia (bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen for plant consumption). Using factorial experiments, genome-wide association mapping, and transcriptomics, this research will investigate how combinations of microbes impact plant performance, uncover the genes underlying these effects, and determine how gene expression is impacted by multi-species mutualism.