GRK 2466: Network, exchange, and training program to understand plant resource allocation (NEXTplant)

植物的无根生活方式需要非凡的可塑性。给定的植物基因型允许由环境和基因型之间复杂的相互作用决定的广泛的表型。目前还不可能从头开始预测给定环境下植物的基因型的表型。解决基因型-表型关系是生物学中一个重要的基本问题，而从基因型预测给定环境的表型的模型的发展是基础科学和应用科学的一个重要挑战。国际研究培训小组NEXTplant将专注于开发模型，预测光合生物在结构和生长、防御和应激反应、营养获取和繁殖方面的资源分配。资源分配表型将从多个角度和环境背景来解决，在一小部分遗传上易于处理和具有良好特征的生物中，通过光合作用产生碳资源。NEXTplant项目的实验设计遵循模拟/学习-设计-构建-测试的循环，这取决于实验生物学家和计算生物学家之间的密切互动。因此，项目由理论和实验生物学家组成的团队领导。该研究项目为理论生物学和实验生物学之间以及数据驱动知识生成领域的博士研究人员（以及教职员工）提供了一个及时的培训环境。nextplant培训是一个为期四年的项目，分为两部分课程：第一年强调理论生物学、统计学和计算生物学、模型构建和合成生物学方面的培训。随后三年的论文研究将第一年奠定的理论基础与独立研究和国际经验相结合。NEXTplant建立在密歇根州立大学和HHU在本科生和研究生培训方面长达十年的互动基础上。MSU小组将侧重于环境线索的感知和转移如何影响资源分配和增长，而HHU将侧重于资源获取和分配以及维护过程。密歇根州立大学贡献了杰出的研究基础设施，如光合作用性能的非侵入性表型，而HHU提供生物成像技术，代谢分析，定量遗传学和理论生物学。

The sessile lifestyle of plants requires extraordinary plasticity. A given plant genotype allows for a broad range of phenotypes that are determined by complex interactions between environment and genotype. It is currently not possible to ab initio predict a plant’s phenotype from its genotype for a given environment. Resolving the genotype-phenotype relationship represents an important fundamental problem in biology and the development of models that predict phenotypes for given environments from genotypes denotes an important challenge, both for fundamental as well as for applied science. The International Research Training Group NEXTplant will focus on developing models that predict resource allocation to structure and growth, defense and stress response, nutrient acquisition, and reproduction in photosynthetic organisms.The resource allocation phenotype will be addressed from multiple angles and environmental contexts, in a small set of genetically tractable and well-characterized organisms that generate their carbon resources by photosynthesis. The experimental design of NEXTplant projects follows a simulate/learn-design-build-test-cycle that depends on close interactions between experimental and computational biologists. Hence projects are led by teams of theoretical and experimental biologists. This research program provides a timely training environment for doctoral researchers (and also for the faculty) at the interphase between theoretical and experimental biology and in the field of data-driven knowledge generationNEXTplant training is organized as a four-year program with a bipartite curriculum: The first year emphasizes training of the cohort in theoretical biology, statistics and computational biology, model building, and synthetic biology. The ensuing three-year dissertation research integrates the theoretical foundations laid in the first year with independent research and international experience.NEXTplant builds on a decade of interactions between MSU and HHU in undergraduate and graduate training. MSU groups will focus on how perception and transfer of environmental cues affects resource allocation and growth, whereas HHU will focus on resource acquisition and distribution, and maintenance processes. MSU contributes outstanding research infrastructure, such as non-invasive phenotyping of photosynthetic performance, whereas HHU provides biological imaging technologies, metabolic analysis, quantitative genetics, and theoretical biology.