NSF NPGI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2014

Vanburen Robert, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

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 Robert Van Buren is "Characterization of the Physiological and Genomic Signatures of Drought Induced CAM Photosynthesis Evolution" The host institution for the fellowship is the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Doug Allen and Todd Mockler. If successful, this project will provide significant new insight into the physiological and gene expression changes that occur when plants switch from C3 to CAM photosynthesis under drought stress. Training objectives include functional genomics, comparative genomics, physiology measurements and analysis of next generation sequencing datasets. Broader impacts include designing teaching modules on genomics, gene expression and bioinformatics for high school teachers through the tech trunk and green means grow programs. Hands-on molecular biology and bioinformatics lesson plans will be developed for use in high school biology classrooms. Broader impacts also include scientific training and mentoring of students at the high school and undergraduate level. Drought is a global problem and understanding how to combat it is central to increasing food production under the changing climate. CAM photosynthesis represents a novel way to reduce drought stress as CAM plants use 80% less water than typical C3 species. All plants contain the genes necessary for CAM photosynthesis; evolving CAM simply requires rerouting preexisting pathways. This project focuses on understanding the physiological and gene expression changes that occur when plants switch from C3 to CAM photosynthesis under drought stress, and identifying changes in gene and regulatory sequences recruited during the evolution of CAM from C3 lineages. C3 and CAM species from two plant families representing individual origins of CAM will be studied. Specific aims include (1) measuring the physiological and biochemical transitions from C3 to CAM under drought stress to provide a framework for (2) RNAseq gene expression experiments. (3) Whole genome sequences of related C3 and CAM species will be generated and (4) comparative genomics will be used to identify genes and regulatory sequences recruited during CAM evolution.