NSF PRFB FY23: Cross-species gene regulation of a plant-fungal symbiosis under environmental stress

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2023财年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。大约75%的陆地植物只与一种真菌“丛枝菌根真菌”共生。这种关系决定了植物如何获取营养以及整个生态系统如何运作。这种关系是否对植物有用取决于环境因素，如养分有效性。例如，真菌通常在营养缺乏时对植物有益，但当植物自己很容易获得营养时，真菌就会伤害植物。不幸的是，控制这种关系对植物有害或有益的基因并不为人所知。了解哪些基因决定真菌何时对植物有益，对于在农业和生物多样性工作中利用真菌至关重要。他将使用大型基因调查、温室实验和显微镜来探索植物和真菌在不同条件下如何相互影响基因。他还建议继续指导来自不同背景的学生，并为学生组织职业发展研讨会，以扩大对生物学的参与。这些研讨会将提供应用STEM职业所需的知识。该研究员将识别跨物种发生的遗传调节（即，植物基因调节真菌基因，反之亦然），以了解植物和真菌如何在不同的环境条件下共同调节它们的关系。研究员将在三个方面实现这一目标：1)研究环境胁迫如何利用基因共表达网络重组植物和真菌基因的共表达模式；2)研究人员将对缺少潜在重要调控基因（即在上述网络中有许多连接的基因）的模式豆科植物紫花苜蓿（Medicago trunculata）在不同胁迫下与丛枝菌根真菌一起或不一起进行植物生长分析；3)该研究人员将与19种不同的特征真菌分离株一起种植紫花苜蓿，以探索真菌伴侣的遗传/功能多样性如何影响植物-菌根关联的环境依赖性。通过这个项目的完成和与博士的密切合作。John Stinchcombe和Vasilis Kokkoris，研究员将：1)完善他在下一代测序和多元统计方面的培训，2)获得真菌生物学和真菌分析方面的技能，3)通过教授生物学课程和通过他的专业发展系列研讨会开发课程来发展为导师。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 2023, 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. About 75% of all land plants partner with just one type of fungus, "arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi". This relationship shapes how plants get nutrients and how whole ecosystems function. Whether this relationship is useful for plants depends on environmental factors like nutrient availability. For example, fungi often help plants when nutrients are scarce, but can harm plants when plants can easily get nutrients on their own. Unfortunately, the genes that control when this relationship harms or helps plants are not well-known. Knowing which genes determine when fungi benefit plants will be vital to using fungi in agriculture and biodiversity efforts. The fellow will use large gene surveys, greenhouse experiments, and microscopy to explore how plants and fungi impact each other’s genes under different conditions. The fellow also proposes broadening participation in biology by continuing to mentor students from diverse backgrounds and organizing career development seminars for students. These seminars will provide necessary knowledge for applying to careers in STEM.The fellow will identify genetic regulation occurring across species (i.e., plant genes that regulate fungal genes and vice versa) to understand how plants and fungi co-regulate their relationship in different environmental conditions. The fellow will satisfy this objective in three aims: 1) the fellow will explore how environmental stress reorganizes co-expression patterns of plant and fungal genes using gene co-expression networks, 2) the fellow will use plant growth assays of the model legume Medicago trunculata missing potentially important regulatory genes (i.e., genes with many connections in the above networks) with/without arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under different stresses, and, lastly, 3) the fellow will grow Medicago truncatula with 19 different characterized fungal isolates to explore how genetic/functional diversity of fungal partners impacts context-dependency of plant-mycorrhizal associations. Through the completion of this project and working closely with Drs. John Stinchcombe and Vasilis Kokkoris, the fellow will: 1) refine his training in next-generation sequencing and multivariate statistics, 2) gain skills in fungal biology and fungal assays, and 3) develop as a mentor through teaching biology courses and developing courses through his professional development seminar series.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.