This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2014. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Lily S. Cheung is "Quantitative Imaging and Mathematical Modeling of Sugar Allocation in Plant Roots" The host institution for the fellowship is the Carnegie Institution for Science and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Wolf B. Frommer.
Understanding the biology of plant membrane transporters, the first step in the uptake and utilization of water and nutrients, can lead to genetically improved crops that are more tolerant to adverse environmental conditions and use resources more efficiently. This project will produce the first maps of sugar distribution in plant tissues and characterize their response to genetic and environmental perturbations. The tools and analysis methods developed can be applied to the study of other metabolites. This project will provide the fellow with interdisciplinary training in plant physiology, quantitative imaging, and computational biology. Additionally, this project will provide summer opportunities in plant biology research to physics, computer science and engineering undergraduate students who will be encouraged to apply principles from their own majors to the study of biological systems.
Increasing the amount of sugars stored in plants is necessary to sustain the growing demand for food and biofuels; yet how sugars are distributed between different tissues within plant organs remains poorly understood. This project seeks to develop quantitative models of sugar transport and metabolism in roots that describe sugar allocation during development, with particular emphasis in understanding the role of the recently discovered SWEET family of sugar transporters in this process. Sugar patterns in plant roots will be characterized using sugar concentration and membrane transport activity optical sensors based on fluorescent proteins. The resulting measurements will be integrated with gene expression and biochemical characterization of SWEET genes to formulate predictive mathematical models of sugar transport and metabolism.
