| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 5, 2020 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 5, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 2011020 |
| Award Instrument: | Fellowship Award |
| Program Manager: |
John Barthell
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2020 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $138,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $138,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
Stanford CA US 94305 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Santa Barbara CA US 93106-9625 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Animal Behavior |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Many living things benefit each other, and these relationships often involve multiple species. Why are these interactions not specialized on a single ?best? partner? This research proposes a new Rule of Life to explain this paradox: Portfolio effects, predicting that diverse partners exist because no single partner is the ?best? under all conditions. Like investors, organisms may need a broad portfolio of relationships, in case the environment changes. This project examines portfolio effects in the ectomycorrhizal mutualism, required by roughly 60% of trees. Ectomycorrhizal plants feed sugars to dozens of fungi on their roots in exchange for nutrients and water. Since trees live for decades, they must withstand environmental variation, from winter storms to droughts. Their fungi may offer different symbiotic benefits in these environments. Thus, trees may need to maintain fungal diversity over time. This research tests for portfolio effects in seedling recruitment, to improve predictions for how forests will respond to environmental variation. This research will also train undergraduate researchers underrepresented in ecology, and will support public lectures and a science workshop for middle school students.
This project combines greenhouse experiments, gene expression analysis, and mathematical modeling to investigate portfolio effects. The Fellow will use Douglas fir and fungal cultures to understand how symbiotic fungal function varies under stress. The stressors tested ? drought and nitrogen pollution ? represent likely future environmental conditions in many forests. The Fellow will measure how well tree seedlings tolerate stress when associated with each fungus, and will measure fungal gene expression across environments, connecting genomes to phenotypes. Then, a statistical model will simulate how well a population of seedlings associated with the tested fungi would withstand a stressful growing season. Portfolio effects predict that populations of seedlings with more diverse symbionts will grow and survive more consistently. Finally, an eco-evolutionary model will examine how specialized a plant lineage will become, depending upon how frequently the environment shifts. Portfolio effects predict that variable environments should select for diverse (not specialized) associations. The Fellow will learn mathematical modeling with her mentor, and will collaborate with experts in France to enhance her metatranscriptomic analysis skills.
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology allowed me to investigate "portfolio effects" as a potential rule of life structuring symbiotic communities, using greenhouse experiments with Douglas fir seedlings and modeling approaches under the mentorship of Dr. Holly Moeller at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I used fungal cultures and spores to initiate symbiosis between greenhouse seedlings and the fungi, and then applied drought and nitrogen stresses to understand how the fungi affected seedling performance. I also extracted RNA from roots with and without fungi to explore how plant gene expression responded to stress when it did and did not have symbiotic partners. This project provided an opportunity for me to develop methods for plant inoculation, drought stress and physiological measurements, and RNA extraction that will support many future investigations into tree-fungal interactions. Although analyses are still ongoing, preliminary results suggest that Douglas fir seedlings are remarkably resilient to drought stress, and that the tested fungi may have been more helpful for plant mineral nutrition than water acquisition in this experiment. Pilot sequencing of root RNA has revealed subtle shifts in gene expression in association with one fungus (Hebeloma cylindrosporum), while the other tested fungus (Suillus lakei) may have produced more dramatic changes in plant gene expression. The modeling work, also ongoing, indicates that a plant may benefit from maintaining multiple fungi on its root system as long as the environment changes frequently enough. This fellowship also facilitated collaboration with experts in mycorrhizal gene expression at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE). Conversations with these collaborators have revealed many productive avenues for future work as I launch my own research program.
In addition to the scientific work supported by this project, this postdoctoral research fellowship supported significant training and outreach activities. As the postdoctoral fellow, I received invaluable training in plant physiology and molecular biology, as well as mathematical modeling, under the mentorship of Dr. Moeller and with my collaborators from INRAE. I was also able to facilitate research experiences for five undergraduate students during the course of this fellowship, two of whom are currently preparing publishable research manuscripts from the work we conducted together. I also served as a project mentor for a student involved in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History's teen program, facilitating her independent investigation of mushroom phenology in the Santa Barbara area as a part of her senior capstone project. This fellowship contributed substantially to my own training, and to the training of the high school and college students that I mentored.
Last Modified: 10/27/2022
Modified by: Laura Bogar
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