NSF : EiR: Building capacity at an HCBU: Tropical plants, their endosymbionts, and their metabolomes.

世界各地不同的人类文化传统上使用不同的植物物种，因为它们具有药用价值。这些植物在文化上是重要的和有影响力的，因为它们的化合物（代谢物）可以有治疗作用。现在人们知道，所有植物的组织中都有各种各样的微生物，包括那些药用微生物。该项目侧重于非洲传统上具有重要意义的两种物种，以了解植物内发生的真菌和细菌如何通过增加或改变植物代谢物的表达或通过表达其自身的化合物来影响药用植物代谢物。该项目将促进对植物相关微生物影响植物代谢物的方式的理解，同时支持对鲍伊州立大学（BSU）的本科生进行国际和机构间研究经验的培训，从肯尼亚的实地收集到美国合作大学的分子生态学和代谢组学（代谢组学）科学的培训。观察到微生物以内生菌的形式出现在活的植物组织中，提出了一个问题：在多大程度上，内生菌负责药用植物的次生代谢物，这是文化从业者和科学家都认为的？该项目将(1)表征肯尼亚和美国药用植物印楝和苦楝地上组织中的内生菌群落，(2)利用接种实验在存在和不存在选定内生菌的情况下建立每个物种的代谢物谱，(3)表征和量化选定内生菌在不同基质上产生的代谢物。该项目将深入研究一个尚未得到充分研究但普遍存在的共生关系——内生菌和宿主植物的共生关系，宿主植物的组织被人类直接利用——将植物代谢表型与其微生物共生关系联系起来。它将通过让BSU的学生参与(a)真正的学年和课堂研究，(b)在肯尼亚和亚利桑那大学（一个西班牙裔服务机构，HSI）进行指导研究，(c)与摩根州立大学（一个HBCU）的代谢组学实验室合作。通过提供能力建设和培训，该项目将扩大本科生在微生物学、代谢组学、植物科学和国际参与方面的机会，为北外学生提供跨领域的国际和机构间研究经验，促进真正的研究，支持北外植物科学课程的博士后，并加强美国hbcu、HSI和肯尼亚国际合作伙伴之间的联系。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。

Diverse plant species are used traditionally by diverse human cultures worldwide for their medicinal properties. These plants are culturally important and impactful because chemical compounds (metabolites) from them can have therapeutic effects. It is now understood that all plants host diverse microbes within their tissues, including those used medicinally. This project focuses on two species of traditional importance in Africa to ask how fungi and bacteria occurring within plants can influence plant metabolites of medicinal use, either by increasing or changing the expression of plant metabolites, or by expressing their own chemical compounds. This project will advance an understanding of the ways in which plant-affiliated microbes influence the metabolites of plants while supporting training for undergraduates at Bowie State University (BSU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), in international and inter-institutional research experiences that range from field collections in Kenya to training at US partner universities in molecular ecology and the science of metabolomes (metabolomics). The observation that microbes occur within living plant tissues as endophytes raises the question: to what degree are endophytes responsible for the secondary metabolites attributed to medicinal plants by cultural practitioners and scientists alike? This project will (1) characterize endophyte communities in above-ground tissues of the medicinal plants Azadiracta indica (neem) and Melia azedarach (melea) in Kenya and the US, (2) use inoculation experiments to establish metabolite profiles for each species in the presence and absence of selected endophytes, and (3) characterize and quantify the production of metabolites by selected endophytes on diverse substrates. This project will provide insight into an understudied but ubiquitous symbiosis – that of endophytes and the host plants whose tissues humans use directly – to link plant metabolic phenotypes to those of their microbial symbionts. It will do so by engaging students from BSU in (a) authentic academic-year and classroom-based research and (b) mentored research in Kenya and at the University of Arizona (a Hispanic-Serving Institution, HSI), (c) in collaboration with a metabolomics laboratory at Morgan State University (an HBCU). By providing capacity-building and training, this project will expand opportunities in microbiology, metabolomics, plant science, and international engagement for undergraduates, support a cross-cutting international and inter-institutional research experience for BSU students, foster authentic research and support a postdoc in the plant science curriculum at BSU, and strengthen ties among US HBCUs, an HSI, and international partners in Kenya.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.