2022 — 2023 |
Han, Yiwei (co-PI) [⬀] Qiu, Yongjian |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Eager: Investigating Plant Thermomorphogenesis Using Innovative Miniature Devices @ University of Mississippi
Global climate change has generated significant fluctuations in ambient growth temperature, which profoundly influences diverse developmental, physiological, and morphological responses in plants, including rapid stem and root elongation, enhanced leafstalk growth and upward leaf bending, and early flowering. Understanding how plants adjust their developmental programs in response to temperature variations is central to improve plant fitness and sustain crop productivity. Most temperature signaling mechanisms were revealed at the whole-plant level, which averages distinct organ and cell types and thus inadvertently creates a one-size-fits-all illusion of proposed thermal sensing and response mechanisms. The proposed experiments are aimed at developing a novel miniature device to study thermal sensing and responses at the organ and cell levels. This new technology allows accurate induction and monitoring of thermal changes in a specific organ, tissue, or cell, making it possible to differentiate distinct thermal responses in various organs and cell types, and unveil the communication mechanisms between different organs and cell layers during coordinated thermal responses. The technology, not yet developed so is potentially risky in execution, is expected to be high reward because it will revolutionize research on thermal sensing and responses in various multicellular organisms and unicellular colonials. This knowledge can be used to advance our understanding of how global warming affects plant growth and development and provide the knowledge basis that may facilitate scientists to generate climate-smart crops. The project also offers opportunities in interdisciplinary research training for students of underrepresented groups.
The investigators of this collaborative project plan to use thermoresponsive hypocotyl (the embryonic stem) and root growth in the dicotyledonous plant Arabidopsis thaliana as a model to establish the Miniature heater-assisted thermomorphogenetic study (Miheats). The project comprises three components. First, a novel manufacturing technique will be developed to produce low-cost, self-designed miniature heaters that are scalable, durable, and flexible. Next, Miheats will be implemented in planta and a series of phenotypic and genetic analyses of Arabidopsis seedlings will be performed to evaluate the technical outcomes of Miheats. Finally, transcriptomic and proteomic analyses will be employed to identify co-regulated gene and protein modules in different organs/cells and unveil the homogeneity and heterogeneity of organ- and cell-specific thermomorphogenetic signaling. Therefore, the project addresses Understanding the Rules of Life and grows Convergence Research by infusing advances in micro/nanofabrication and minimally invasive approaches to create a new solver for investigating organ/cell-autonomous and -nonautonomous reactions as well as interorgan and intercellular communications in response to temperature fluctuations in multi-cellular organisms. Further, this high risk / high reward project will improve the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education core competencies, especially the ability to tap into the interdisciplinary nature of science and the ability to communicate and collaborate with other disciplines, of underrepresented minority students at the University of Mississippi.
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.
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