News Release 17-063
New NSF, USDA awards focus on relationships that benefit, harm plants
Research examines interactions of plants with microbes and invertebrates
July 19, 2017
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) have issued 27 research project awards, totaling more than $18 million, to support research into the relationships between plants, microbes and other organisms in their environment. These awards were made through the Plant Biotic Interactions (PBI) program jointly administered by the NSF Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) and NIFA.
"The PBI program is an example of good use of government resources and interagency collaboration, taking advantage of the expertise and support for basic science provided by NSF and the applied agricultural research supported by NIFA that translates into improving crop outcomes," says James Olds, NSF assistant director for Biological Sciences. "It allows creative investigators to combine basic science questions with applied uses of the results in one proposal."
Organisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and invertebrates have relationships with plants that can range from mutually beneficial symbiosis, to pathogenesis, to parasitism that harms host plants. The PBI program focuses on uncovering the processes that allow for, promote or control these relationships. The first-ever PBI awards went to projects examining the dynamics of how these complex associations are initiated, transmitted and maintained.
For agriculture, a beneficial relationship between plants and other organisms can save farmers resources and money, but a harmful relationship can result in expensive crop loss or inefficiencies. Only by studying the interactions in model plants and economically important plants will it be possible to effectively utilize the advantages these relationships offer or eliminate their detrimental effects.
Research topics in the new awards include projects to:
- Determine how root, microbial communities promote the health of beachgrass crucial for preserving sand dunes along coastlines.
- Shed light on how a pathogen can cause tomatoes, cotton, watermelon, banana and other valuable crops to wither on their stems.
- Define how plants recognize and halt pathogens.
- Assess how plants distinguish their own pollen from the pollen of other plants during fertilization.
The funded projects will outline the molecular, genomic, metabolic and cellular dynamics of biotic interactions involving plants, with the goal of deepening the research community's fundamental knowledge while advancing information needed to improve agricultural outcomes. The newly awarded projects are:
- Enhancing the establishment of beneficial root/rhizosphere interactions in agriculturally relevant plants
- Drivers of host adaptation and diversification in an emerging plant pathogen, Erwinia tracheiphila
- Symbiotic dialogue in tripartite interactions of legumes
- Dissecting the mechanisms of Feronia and related receptor kinase-mediated pollen-pistil interactions
- Virus mediated phloem loading involves the suppression of age-related resistance
- Elucidation of translational regulatory mechanisms of plant immune responses
- Multitrophic manipulation of herbivore perception by plants
- Identification and characterization of a regulon involved in the persistence of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus in citrus
- Systems genetics of symbiotic quality in legume-rhizobium mutualism
- Role of extracellular vesicles in plant-pathogen interactions
- RUI: Role of the root microbiome in growth promotion and health of the beachgrass Ammophila breviligulata
- Characterizing a novel sinorhizobium activity that increases legume nodulation
- CAREER: Characterization of epigenetic factors and their regulatory roles in modulating transposable elements, plant immunity and transgenerational inheritance
- Molecular, biochemical and structural studies of the mechanism of S-RNase-based self-incompatibility in Petunia
- Evolution of the plant immune signaling network
- Systemic oxylipin signals (SOS) for herbivory-induced defense
- Roles of auxin during Pseudomonas syringae pathogenesis
- CAREER: Understand effector biology in the species complex Fusarium oxysporum
- The role of microRNAs and micropeptides in the plant immune response
- RUI: The genetics and mathematical modeling of pollen performance
- On the mechanism of translocation of effectors into living rice cells by the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae
- Consequences of genome editing the susceptibility gene CsLOB1 for citrus bacterial canker
- Virus-host interactions in the assembly of positive-strand RNA virus replication complexes
- Molecular mechanisms connecting plant defense suppression with Magnaporthe oryzae growth in rice cells
- Linking patterns with processes in phyllosphere microbiome assembly
- Investigating the role of interfering TAL effectors in virulence
- Role of organelle-localized Lys63-linked ubiquitination in plant immunity
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Rob Margetta, NSF, (703) 292-2663, email: rmargett@nsf.gov
The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.
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