This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020. 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 Elaine Yeung is ?Towards resilient crops: understanding the interaction between flooding-recovery stress and plant immunity.? The host institution for the fellowship is Rothamsted Research, UK and the sponsoring scientists are Prof. Frederica Theodoulou and Dr. Kostya Kanyuka.
Increasing flooding events linked to climate change have damaged crops globally. To meet the predicted nutritional needs of the world?s growing population, developing crops with improved tolerance to flooding is vital. Scientific research on plant stress tolerance mechanisms has mostly focused on single stressors, but plants experience multiple stresses in real world conditions. Flooding decreases oxygen levels for plants underwater, which often contributes to depleted energy resources. Even after flooding, the inability to replenish these resources could cause slowly recovering plants to be vulnerable to attacks from insects or plant diseases. Plants with a better flooding tolerance in which well-maintained energy status improves post-flooding recovery are hypothesized to have superior resistance to disease. This research will therefore be one of the first to comprehensively address the combined effects of two important agricultural problems, flooding and plant disease, ultimately aiming to meet the world?s growing food demand through enhanced disease management after flooding in crop plants. The fellowship will also contribute to the professional development of the aspiring independent researcher, with training in transferrable soft and technical skills to enhance a future career in plant sciences under the dual mentorships of Prof. Theodoulou and Dr. Kanyuka. The researcher will be trained in specific scientific skills relevant to the project, while developing a portfolio of professional skills including teaching and mentoring students and effective project management. Rothamsted Research will also support public engagement and science communication activities, with goals of raising awareness of the promises of plant breeding through biotechnology and inspiring the next generation of scientists from an early age.
The research will exploit natural variation as a starting point for investigating the crosstalk between post-flooding recovery and biotic stress tolerance. Comparisons will be made between flooding-tolerant and -intolerant cultivars of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and different genotypes of the model dicot Arabidopsis thaliana. Both species exhibit extensive natural variation in flooding tolerance and pathogen responses. Two pathogens will be tested: the fungus Zymoseptoria tritici that causes a widespread disease Septoria tritici blotch (STB) in wheat and Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato (Pst) DC3000, a model pathogenic bacterium infecting Arabidopsis. Post-flooding plant immunity will be assessed with a novel combination of mass spectrometry-based proteomics (to monitor protein dynamics especially for defense-related proteins), molecular physiology, and pathogen responses in mutant and transgenic lines generated with transient virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) or virus-mediated protein overexpression (VOX) assays. Scientific results will be published wherever possible in open access journals and data will be deposited in gold-standard community databases. Transgenic Arabidopsis and wheat lines produced will be deposited in a seed bank upon project completion and be freely distributed when requested. The researcher will be guided by FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, re-usable) data principles.
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.
