NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: From genomes to phenomes: the rules of life that govern bacterial-fungal-plant symbioses

该行动资助2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。例如，细菌和某种真菌（称为外生菌根真菌）与植物有关，并有助于推动将农业、生态系统健康和气候模式联系起来的过程。然而，关于细菌-真菌相互作用的知识目前缺乏对哪些细菌-真菌关系在环境中持续存在以及哪些细菌-真菌关系共同（共生）促进植物生长和发育的详细描述。这项研究将调查这些复杂关系的基本原理，以建立确定植物如何在复杂环境中发育的模型。此外，该项目将为研究员提供实施大规模、基于微生物的生态系统可持续性目标所需的跨学科培训，并将促进与平面设计师和当地组织的合作，推出一系列虚拟动画，将代表性不足的群体与艺术和科学联系起来。这项研究将直接测试Baas Becking假说，该假说认为环境（如植物）通过确定加利福尼亚沿海平原上与植物相关的细菌-真菌伴侣的组成，从同质的有机伴侣池中进行选择。为了更好地理解驱动细菌-真菌-植物关系的机制细节（基因型到表型），自上而下（即宏基因组测序）和自下而上（即植物生物测定）的方法将相结合，以1)建立普遍的植物相关细菌-真菌相互作用；2)揭示细菌-真菌植物相关群落在微尺度（植物根系近端和远端）和景观（加利福尼亚海岸线）尺度上的遗传重叠和差异程度；3)确定选择细菌-真菌相互作用和功能对调节微生物群落组合和促进植物发育的重要性。因此，将测试两种生命模式/规则：1)共生既依赖于生物环境，也依赖于非生物环境；2)由于优势共生关系随着空间的变化而变化，这导致了影响地球系统功能的酶活性和群落组合的可预测变化（例如，寡营养细菌的变化更容易分解几丁质而不是纤维素）。此外，该研究员将获得微生物生态学（即微观和宏观尺度）方面的关键训练，最终生成预测模型，以植物-微生物相互作用为生态系统功能奠定基础。最后，该项目将生成虚拟展览，将植物-微生物群落拟人化，以展示生命中的各种关系如何加强我们社区的社会结构。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. For instance, bacteria and a certain kind of fungi (called ectomycorrhizal fungi) associate with plants and help drive the processes that link agriculture, ecosystem health, and climate patterns. However, knowledge of bacterial-fungal interactions currently lacks detailed descriptions of which bacterial-fungal relationships persist in the environment and which bacterial-fungal relationships work together (symbiotically) to contribute to plant growth and development. This research will investigate the fundamentals of these complex relationships to the end of establishing models that determine how plants develop in complex environments. Moreover, this project will provide the fellow with the interdisciplinary training needed to implement large scale, microbial-based ecosystem sustainability goals and will facilitate partnerships with graphic designers and local organizations to put forth a series of virtual animations that link underrepresented groups to the arts and sciences.This research will directly test the Baas Becking Hypothesis—which states that the environment (e.g., plants) selects from a homogenous pool of organismal partners—by determining the composition of plant-associated bacterial-fungal partners across the coastal plain of California. To better understand the mechanistic details (genotypes-to-phenotypes) that drive bacterial-fungal-plant relationships, top-down (i.e., metagenomic sequencing) and bottom-up (i.e., plant bioassays) approaches will be combined to 1) establish prevalent plant-associated bacterial-fungal interactions, 2) uncover the degree of genetic overlap and dissimilarity between bacterial-fungal plant-associated communities across microscale (proximal and distal to plant root systems) and landscape (California coastline) scales, and 3) determine the importance of select bacterial-fungal interactions and functions for mediating microbial community assemblages and fostering plant development. Resultantly, two models/rules of life will be tested: 1) symbioses depend as much on biotic context as on abiotic context; and 2) because dominant mutualisms change over space, this leads to predicable changes in enzymatic activity and community assemblages that impact Earth system functions (e.g., shifts in oligotrophic bacteria that are more chitinolytic than cellulolytic). Further, the fellow will gain critical training in microbial ecology (i.e., micro- and macroscales) to the end of generating predictive models that undergird ecosystem functioning with plant-microbe interactions. Finally, this project will generate virtual exhibits that will anthropomorphize plant-microbe communities to demonstrate how diverse relationships in life strengthen the social fabric of our communities.This 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.