NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: The Genetic Architecture of Hydraulic and Whole-plant Performance Under Cold Temperatures in Sunflower

这一行动为NSF国家植物基因组计划2019财年生物学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为该研究员制定的研究和培训计划，该研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与度的计划。贾里德·J·斯图尔特博士的这项研究和培训计划的标题是“向日葵在寒冷温度下的水力和全植物性能的遗传结构”。该奖学金的主办机构是USDA-ARS水资源管理和系统研究单位(科罗拉多大学)、科罗拉多大学博尔德分校和USDA-ARS向日葵和植物生物学研究单位(法戈，ND)，赞助科学家分别是Sean M.Gleason博士、Nolan C.Kane博士和Brent S.Hulke博士。在美国，许多盛产向日葵的州都经历了时断时续的晚春冰冻温度。这些冻融事件对植物的水分运输系统造成了巨大影响，对农业生产力构成了相当大的威胁。该项目旨在通过确定在普通向日葵中能够在寒冷条件下表现优异的性状和遗传学来解决这个问题。由于这一综合项目将在美国农业部-研究生院的两个任务互补的机构和一所公立大学进行，这项工作的结果应该有利于正在进行的多个应用学科和基础学科的努力。此外，这一实验模型还可以适用于在所需生长季节经常发生冻融事件的地区种植的其他作物。该项目的培训目标包括确定水力性状的特征，确定相关性状的遗传基础，以及开发高效鉴定优良作物品系的高通量方法。该项目期间更广泛的影响活动将包括对本科生和研究生的培训和指导，以及在科罗拉多州北部的K-12公立学校和大学进行的教育推广。为了满足面对气候变化的农业需求，必须确定使植物在次优环境条件下表现优异的植物功能特征和潜在遗传学。该项目将通过描述向日葵在低温下的高光合作用和全株生产力的水力功能的遗传结构，为实现这一目标做出贡献。相关的解剖和功能特征将在气候控制的生长室中生长在不同温度下的植物以及在大规模田间试验中生长的植物中表现出来。这些结果将用于通过定向和全基因组关联作图技术来识别适应性基因座。这个项目将展示300多份普通向日葵的种质，包括向日葵关联图谱(SAM)种群，它涵盖了90%的栽培向日葵的等位基因多样性，以及来自其原产地气候多样性的野生种质。来自野生种质的表型和遗传型数据将与它们各自原产地的气候数据进行比较，以提供生态和进化相关性，这可能会指导未来对气候特别具有挑战性的地区的育种工作。来自这些调查的表型数据将通过向日葵基因组数据库(https://www.sunflowergenome.org}，)提供，而基因数据将通过美国国家科学基金会短读档案数据库(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra).Keywords：)获得(NCBI短读档案数据库)，包括向日葵、水力性状、非生物胁迫、生态生理学、关联图谱、基因组学、高通量田间表型。

This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019. 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 Dr. Jared J. Stewart is "The Genetic Architecture of Hydraulic and Whole-plant Performance Under Cold Temperature in Sunflower". The host institutions for the fellowship are USDA-ARS Water Management and Systems Research Unit (Fort Collins, CO), the University of Colorado-Boulder, and USDA-ARS Sunflower and Plant Biology Research Unit (Fargo, ND) and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Sean M. Gleason, Nolan C. Kane, and Brent S. Hulke, respectively.Sunflower is one of the most widely produced oil crops across the globe. In the United States, many of the top sunflower-producing states experience episodic late-spring freezing temperatures. These freeze-thaw events pose a considerable threat to agricultural productivity through their dramatic impact on the water-transporting system of plants. This project aims to address this issue through identifying traits and genetics that confer superior performance under cold conditions in the common sunflower. Since this integrative project will occur at two USDA-ARS institutions with complementary missions as well as a public university, the results of this work should benefit ongoing efforts across multiple applied and fundamental disciplines. Furthermore, this experimental model could be adapted for other crops that are grown in locations with regularly occurring freeze-thaw events during the desired growing season. Training objectives for this project include characterizing hydraulic traits, identifying genetics underlying relevant traits, and developing high-throughput methods for efficient identification of superior crop lines. Broader impact activities during this project will include training and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students as well as educational outreach at K-12 public schools and universities across northern Colorado.To meet agricultural demand in the face of climate change, plant functional traits and underlying genetics that allow superior plant performance under suboptimal environmental conditions must be identified. This project will contribute to this goal by characterizing the genetic architecture of hydraulic functioning in relation to high photosynthetic and whole-plant productivity under cold temperatures in sunflower. Relevant anatomical and functional traits will be characterized in plants grown under contrasting temperatures in climate-controlled growth chambers as well as plants grown in large-scale field trials. These results will be used to identify adaptive loci through both targeted and genome-wide association-mapping techniques. This project will feature over 300 accessions of the common sunflower, including the Sunflower Association Mapping (SAM) population, which encompasses 90% of the allelic diversity of cultivated sunflowers, as well as wild accessions that originate from a diversity of climates across its native range. Phenotypic and genotypic data from the wild accessions will be compared with climatic data from their respective sites of origin to provide ecological and evolutionary relevance, which could guide future breeding efforts for locations with exceptionally challenging climates. Phenotypic data from these investigations will be made available through the Sunflower Genome Database (https://www.sunflowergenome.org}, and genotypic data will be made available through the NCBI Short Read Archive database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra).Keywords: sunflower, hydraulic trait, abiotic stress, ecophysiology, association mapping, genomics, high throughput field-based phenotypingThis 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.