NSF Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship for FY2009

Gilbert Luz B, 31326 Castanet Tolosan

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2009 and is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). 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 Luz Gilbert is "Transitioning a parasite into a symbiont: experimental evolution in Rhizobia." The host institution for this research is the Centre Nationale de La Recherche Scientifique (Castanet, France) under the sponsorship of Drs. Catherine Masson-Boivin and Jacques Batut. From the bacterial species tree, closely related microbes can display dramatically different lifestyles: symbiotic, saprobic, or pathogenic. How a microbe can, over time, transition into one kind from another is still unresolved. The rhizobial symbiosis is an ecologically important association between leguminous plants and a diverse set of bacteria. The bacteria provide nitrogen in a form the plant can use and the bacteria receive food and shelter in the structure specific to this association, the nodule. This project is identifying molecular changes in evolved bacteria by exploring the genes responsible for the symbiosis from Cupriavidus taiwanensis to its pathogenic relative Ralstonia solancearum using genome sequencing. The training objectives of this project are to develop a suite of microbial tools and techniques to dissect the evolutionary process in a new model system. The expertise at the location of this work, a French institute focused on microbial symbiosis and pathogenesis, opens new research opportunities and networking opportunities internationally as the Fellow is one of a handful of minorities and the only American working in the department.