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 Jennifer Wisecaver is "The Evolution of Secondary Metabolic Gene Clusters in Plants." The host institutions for the fellowship are Vanderbilt University and the John Innes Centre (Norfolk, UK) and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Antonis Rokas and Anne Osbourn. Training objectives include comparative and evolutionary plant genomics and bioinformatics. Broader impacts include teaching and training of students at all academic levels, with the inclusion of underrepresented groups, including outreach to local high schools through Vanderbilt's Center for Science Outreach as well as the mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students.
Gene clusters in plants produce metabolites associated with stress tolerance, an ecologically and agriculturally important trait. Additionally, many clustered plant pathways code for small molecules with antimicrobial and anticancer properties. Despite the importance of plant gene clusters, the computational tools that can lead to their discovery are underdeveloped and the mechanisms that make and maintain gene clusters in genomes are poorly characterized. This project will use comparative genomics to quantify the relative impact of gene duplication and other sources of gene innovation on the formation, maintenance and dispersal of metabolic clusters in plant genomes. All available plant genomes will be screened for putative metabolic clusters and gene expression levels of putative gene clusters across entire genomes will be functionally characterized to test for co-regulation of gene clusters under different growth conditions. The evolutionary processes that give rise to clustered genes will be identified and their relative contribution in plant gene clusters will be quantified. The knowledge gained will improve our understanding of how plant secondary metabolic gene clusters evolve, which will allow researchers to not only better annotate and interpret novel secondary metabolic clusters, but also better manipulate them for the development of new crop varieties to address agricultural challenges due to climate change and increased demand for food, biofuels, and other plant products.
