NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Identifying Mechanisms of Plant Symbiosis Control Through Virus Induced Mutant Stacking (VIMS)

Evan Ellison博士的研究和培训计划的标题是“通过病毒诱导突变体堆积（VIMS）确定植物共生控制机制”。该研究金的主办机构是剑桥大学，赞助科学家是Giles E.D.教授。为了在不断增长的全球人口中维持和扩大粮食生产，必须开发下一代作物品种，利用自然系统来改善养分捕获，而不是依赖过度施用无机养分。幸运的是，大多数作物物种可以通过与有益的土壤真菌的共生关系大大提高其捕获和利用必需营养素的能力。然而，如果土壤中施用了高浓度的氮或磷，这种共生关系就会受到限制，从而限制了其效用。这项研究的目标是表征在高营养条件下调节共生的未知信号，从而确定在保持高生产力的同时使用较少投入的作物基因型。该项目还旨在使大规模基因组编辑项目民主化并消除其财务，地理和时间限制，这对国际分子植物改良至关重要。该项目的更广泛影响包括为植物科学界提供遗传和技术资源，教育对基因编辑如何有助于减少肥料使用感兴趣的公民科学家，以及将成果转化为作物改良和可持续粮食生产。培训目标包括获得应用遗传和基因组工具解决生物学重要问题的实践专业知识。 分根实验表明，营养抑制丛枝菌根共生存在通过很大程度上未知的系统过程，除了本地机制。分泌肽已被证明是系统共生调节和营养反应的关键组分。这项研究将描述系统肽调节共生与菌根真菌在不同的营养条件。将多种环境条件与它们的信号反应联系起来，将通过开发一种新的病毒诱导突变体堆积方法来实现，以在群体中快速堆积靶向突变。这种新的遗传筛选技术将被应用于创建一个组合群体的肽突变体和隔离的遗传背景，使共生营养抑制条件下。在该项目期间产生的突变群体和基因工程试剂将立即提供给研究人员进行独立调查。这项研究中开发的新技术可用于研究复杂的、综合的表型反应，同时为共生的系统调节提供有价值的见解。使用这种方法鉴定的因果等位基因可以快速掺入农业相关物种中，用于快速作物改良。所有数据、遗传和分子资源以及方法学进展将通过公共长期储存库和应要求免费提供给一般科学界。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Dr. Evan Ellison is “Identifying Mechanisms of Plant Symbiosis Control Through Virus Induced Mutant Stacking (VIMS)”. The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Cambridge and the sponsoring scientist is Prof. Giles E.D. Oldroyd.To sustain and expand food production in a growing global population, next generation crop varieties must be developed that take advantage of natural systems to improve nutrient capture rather than rely on excessive application of inorganic nutrients. Fortunately, most crop species can greatly improve their ability to capture and use essential nutrients through symbiotic relationships with beneficial soil fungi. This symbiosis, however, is restricted if high concentrations of nitrogen or phosphorus have been applied to the soil, limiting the utility. The goal of this research is to characterize unknown signals that regulate symbiosis under high nutrient conditions; thereby identifying crop genotypes that use less input while maintaining high productivity. This project also seeks to democratize and remove financial, geographic and time limitations of large-scale genome editing projects, which is critical for international molecular plant improvement. Broader impacts from this project include generating genetic and technological resources for the plant science community, educating citizen scientists interested in how gene editing contributes to reducing fertilizer use, and translating results for crop improvement and sustainable food production. Training objectives include obtaining hands-on expertise in applying genetic and genomic tools to address biologically important questions. Split root experiments suggest that nutrient suppression of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis exists through largely unknown systemic process in addition to local mechanisms. Secreted peptides have been demonstrated to be a critical component of systemic symbiosis regulation and nutrient response. This research will characterize systemic peptides that regulate symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi in response to differential nutrient conditions. Connecting multiple environmental conditions to their signaling response will be accomplished by developing a new method of Viral Induced Mutant Stacking to rapidly stack targeted mutations across a population. This novel genetic screening technique will be applied to create a combinatorial population of peptide mutants and isolate genetic backgrounds enabling symbiosis under nutrient suppressive conditions. Mutant populations and genetic engineering reagents generated during this project will be immediately available to researchers for independent investigations. New technology developed in this research can be used to study complex, integrated, phenotypic responses while providing valuable insight into the systemic regulation of symbiosis. Causal alleles identified using this approach can quickly be incorporated into agriculturally relevant species for rapid crop improvement. All data, genetic and molecular resources, and methodological advances will be made freely available to the general scientific community through public long-term repositories and upon request.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.