This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the Networks and Regulation Program in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the Directorate for Biology; the Advances in Biological Informatics Program in the Division of Biological Infrastructure in the Directorate for Biology; the Chemical, Biochemical, and Biotechnology Systems Program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems in the Directorate for Engineering; and the Office of Cyberinfrastructure. Multicellular organisms such as plants react to abiotic stress with a multitude of physiological and molecular responses orchestrated by key regulatory proteins, or transcription factors. The activity of these transcription factors allows the plant to adapt to environmental change and maintain homeostasis. Experimental datasets, such as transcriptional profiles, are currently analyzed by computational tools that are inadequate to uncover novel stress response regulatory proteins. The objective of this project is to develop a novel computing and modeling paradigm with sufficient power to identify previously uncharacterized regulatory components involved in the control of iron homeostasis in A. thaliana across multiple cell types. INTELLECUTAL MERIT: The interdisciplinary approach proposed by these PIs presents a new paradigm that unifies novel genomic experimental techniques, engineering modeling approaches, and parallel computing to clarify the role of known regulatory elements involved in iron homeostasis within and across different cell types. The integration of systems engineering, plant biology, and computer engineering will help create new solutions to existing problems and encourages a vision for addressing challenging issues that remain intimidating using traditional approaches. BROADER IMPACTS: The investigators will develop novel tools to help map the regulatory control points that enable plants to respond to biological and non-biological stressors. A project website will serve as a conduit to the research community, making available repositories of microarray data, computer codes and the computing frameworks. The proposed multi-disciplinary approach will streamline resources and expertise with the goal to increase crop yields under stress conditions. This will be necessary to meet the grand challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. North Carolina State University is a natural place to develop this interdisciplinary integration due to historical success of the institution in engineering and plant biology. Through this project, the PIs will support the interdisciplinary education of four PhD students. The investigators also plan to integrate concepts from the proposed research into an outreach initiative to expose students from 8th and 9th grades to the idea that plant can deal with stress through selective and targeted gene expression mechanisms. The goal is to expand on current relationships establish by these PIs with local middle (Leesville Middle) and high school (Wakefield High) science teachers through the Kenan Fellows program (http://kenanfellows.org/)to incorporate targeted lesson plans into their biotechnology learning modules.
