NSF Award
2430256
This project aims to explore and develop partnerships with leading research institutes, both academic and private, that are leaders in the areas of plant biology, RNA biology, and workforce development. In turn, the project has potential to strengthen the research capacity of the four partnering HBCUs. The project, led by Howard University, includes partnerships with Alabama State University, Saint Augustine's College, and Meharry Medical College. Project activities include 1) a team meeting to restructure the collaborative proposal and its activities; 2) interfacing with subject matter experts; 3) technical capacity enhancement - particularly in plant molecular isolation and analysis with a focus on RNA and RNA modification mapping; and 4) computational analysis and data science for transcriptome and RNA modification data analysis. The project hypothesizes that noncoding RNAs and RNA modifications play a key role in mediating the biotic and abiotic stress response in plants. The proposed activities and the partnerships associated with them will position the research team to characterize the biotic and abiotic plant stress response. Researchers will use transcriptomics, oxford nanopore sequencing, and Liquid Chromatography followed by Mass Spectrometry approaches to characterize the transcriptome and RNA modification changes during biotic and abiotic stress of plants, using Arabidopsis, Tomato, and Rice and experimental models. Additionally, project researchers will create customized computational pipelines with the help of artificial intelligence to map and curate these changes. Characterizing the RNA based biotic and abiotic plant stress response will inform efforts to subsequently use plant transformation and CRISPR-based recombination to genetically engineer climate resilient crops. <br/><br/>Climate change is a major problem in the 21st century. Temperature, precipitation, and humidity extremes have negative impact on agricultural capacity, potentially leading to decreased food security. Food security is necessary for national health, prosperity, and military strength for national security. These are central aspects for a prosperous society and the nation's competitive standing across the globe. Creating climate resilient crops is a potential strategy to increase food security and mitigate the deleterious effects of climate change on agricultural capacity. To engineer climate resilient crops, there must be a full understanding of the ability of plants to respond to environmental stress associated with extreme weather conditions (plant resilience). However, current understanding of plant resilience is limited at the RNA level. This project aims to characterize the RNA-based mechanisms of plant resilience and use that information to genetically engineer plants and agricultural crops with increased climate resilience. To be able to characterize plant resilience and genetically engineer improved crops, the nation must develop an inclusive STEM workforce. To address this need, this project will focus on increasing research capacity and technical capacity to characterize RNA and execute genetic engineering of plants through training and education in this research project.<br/><br/>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.
