Progress 04/15/18 to 06/01/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience includes members of the scientific researchcommunity and area K12 students and teachers with an interest in science. Thefellow has presented work to the research community through presentations within the research institute (Salk Insititute for Biological Studies). The fellow has presented a poster of research progress at aninternational meeting, Plant Biology 2019 in San Jose, CA, attended by scientists broadly interested in plants and agriculture. The fellow has attended a conference Phenome 2020.The fellow has participated in community outreach activites, targeting the local San Diego community,organized by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, including Explore Salk, High School Science Day, and worked with the Salk Education Outreach department indevelopment of a classroom teaching module with local high school teachers. A handful of teachers have piloted experiments in the San Diego area with their students and the classroom module is continuing to be developed. Changes/Problems:During the performance period, the fellow experienced challenges with variation in growth responses in seeds of Medicago truncatula and Lotus Japonicus. The fellow has approached this issue by focusing on orthrologous genes identified in Arabidopsis to characterize in other plant species. While this will potentially result in inability to identifiy unique, species-specific genes, one could identifiy conserved processes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The fellow has had oppotunities to engage with the research community through presenting at two research seminars to thePlant Biology department at the Salk Institute. The fellow has presented a poster at Plant Biology 2019. The fellow attended Phenome 2020. The fellow has participated in community outreach activities at the Salk Instituteincluding, High School Science Day, Explore Salk, and the Ellen Potter High School teacher symposium. The fellow completed a teaching course at the University of California- San Diego, "Introduction to College Teaching". The fellow has worked to develop a course module for high school students incorporating natural variation and plant stress responses with the Salk Education Outreach team. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The fellow has taken part in various community outreach activities (High School Science Day, Explore Salk, Ellen Potter High School teacher symposium) and discussed research activities with members of the local community interested in science. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Please note the accomplishment number, corresponds to the goal number. 1. The physiolocial effect of volatile organic compounds has been tested in Arabidopsis thaliana and Lotus japonicus. 2. Several hormone mutants in Arabidopsis have been tested for their role in VOC response. However, a mutant lines from agene identified from the GWAS, AtGPX6, shows insensitivityto auxin. 3. Genome-wide association studies was carried out on one VOC, 1-octen-3-ol. 1-octen-3-ol has been found to affect glutathione, and redox regulation in plants. Mutants in the glutathione pathway are being tested in Arabidopsis and Lotus. RNAseq was carried out to identify other genes involved in1-octen-3-ol response. 4. An undergraduate student from UC San Diego was recruited and trained in the lab from 2019- 2020. The fellow has worked with the Education Outreach department at Salk to develop a classroom kit for biology classes which focus on natural variation and growth traits.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/18 to 05/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience includes members of the scientific researchcommunity and area K12 students and teachers with an interest in science. Thefellow has presented work to the research community through presentations within the research institute (Salk Insititute for Biological Studies). The fellow has presented a poster of research progress at aninternational meeting, Plant Biology 2019 in San Jose, CA, attended by scientists broadly interested in plants and agriculture. The fellow has attended a conference Phenome 2020.The fellow has participated in community outreach activites, targeting the local San Diego community,organized by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, including Explore Salk, High School Science Day, and worked with the Salk Education Outreach department indevelopment of a classroom teaching module with local high school teachers. A handful of teachers have piloted experiments in the San Diego area with their students and the classroom module is continuing to be developed. Changes/Problems:During the performance period, the fellow experienced challenges with variation in growth responses in seeds of Medicago truncatula and Lotus Japonicus. The fellow has approached this issue by focusing on orthrologous genes identified in Arabidopsis to characterize in other plant species. While this will potentially result in inability to identifiy unique, species-specific genes, one could identifiy conserved processes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The fellow has had oppotunities to engage with the research community through presenting at two research seminars to thePlant Biology department at the Salk Institute. The fellow has presented a poster at Plant Biology 2019. The fellow attended Phenome 2020. The fellow has participated in community outreach activities at the Salk Instituteincluding, High School Science Day, Explore Salk, and the Ellen Potter High School teacher symposium. The fellow completed a teaching course at the University of California- San Diego, "Introduction to College Teaching". The fellow has worked to develop a course module for high school students incorporating natural variation and plant stress responses with the Salk Education Outreach team. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The fellow has taken part in various community outreach activities (High School Science Day, Explore Salk, Ellen Potter High School teacher symposium) and discussed research activities with members of the local community interested in science. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Please note the accomplishment number, corresponds to the goal number. 1. The physiolocial effect of volatile organic compounds has been tested in Arabidopsis thaliana and Lotus japonicus. 2. Several hormone mutants in Arabidopsis have been tested for their role in VOC response. However, a mutant lines from agene identified from the GWAS, AtGPX6, shows insensitivityto auxin. 3. Genome-wide association studies was carried out on one VOC, 1-octen-3-ol. 1-octen-3-ol has been found to affect glutathione, and redox regulation in plants. Mutants in the glutathione pathway are being tested in Arabidopsis and Lotus. RNAseq was carried out to identify other genes involved in1-octen-3-ol response. 4. An undergraduate student from UC San Diego was recruited and trained in the lab from 2019- 2020. The fellow has worked with the Education Outreach department at Salk to develop a classroom kit for biology classes which focus on natural variation and growth traits.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/19 to 04/14/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The fellow has presented research-related material to the San Diego community through community outreach activities at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The target audience has been high school science teachers and their students through the fellow's participation in the design of classroom materials. The fellow has mentored an undergraduate student in the lab from the University of California- San Diego. Changes/Problems:The fellow has run into problems assessing the natural variation in Lotus japonicus for response to 1-octen-3-ol. The variation in growth of Lotus japonicus within natural accessions,combined with alimited number of seeds, has lead the fellow to change the approach to instead,test orthologous genes identified from the GWAS in Arabidopsis in Lotus japonicus. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has given the fellow the opportunity to present aresearch seminarto the plant biology group at the Salk Institute. The fellow has given a poster presentation at the ASPB Plant Biology conference. The fellow has also attended Phenome which provided networking oppotunties. The fellow has participated in education outreach activities and developed a classroom kit with local high school science teachers on the role of natural variationin plant growth responses to environment. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The fellow has attended conferences and presented work within the research community in the form of poster and oral presentations. The fellow has worked with high school teachers to develop educational materials, and discussed the current state of research with these teachers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The fellow has requested a no cost extention which will last 1.5 months. Please note the goals correspond to the research objectives outlined above. 3. During this period, the fellow would like to submit samples for an RNAseq experiment in the hopes of identification of a receptor or other upstream signals for 1-octen-3-ol to build on the molecular pathway for this response. The fellow will assess orthologous mutants from glutathione peroxidase in Arabidopsis inLotus japonicus to characterize the conservation of the response. 4. The fellow will work with the educational outreach team at the Salk Institute to edit the contents of the educational kit.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During this funding period, the fellow has contributed to research objectives, 2, 3, and 4. 2. After identifiying the role of glutathione in response to volatile organic compound,1-octen-3-olfrom the genome-wide association study (research objective3), the fellow testedmutants in glutathione pathway whichshowedresistanceto exogenous auxin treatment. 3. The fellow has identified a gene, AtGPX6,that contributes to response of volatile organic compound, 1-octen-3-ol, through genome-wide association studies. gpx6 mutants are resistant to 1-octen-3-ol treatment.The fellow has confirmed the involvement of the glutathione pathway throughuse ofchemicals to alter the regulation of glutathione, and observed changes in the response to 1-octen-3-ol when glutathione levels are modulated. The fellow has tested the experssion of glutathione-related genes and identified that the natural accessions show differences in expression dependenton the GPX6 allele. The fellow has tested the expression of GPX6 and identified multiple VOCs alter the expression of GPX6, suggesting that GPX6 may have a role in response to VOCs beyond 1-octen-3-ol. Analysis of climate data from the origins of the natural accessions has identified a correlation between the response to 1-octen-3-ol and photosynthetically active radiation. 4. The fellow has continued to mentor an undergraduate student in the lab from University of California- San Diego. The fellow has worked with local high school teachers to pilot a classroom kit based on natural variation in plant growth and contribution of the environment to phenotype. The kit has been tested in a handful of classrooms.
Publications
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Progress 04/15/18 to 04/14/19
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, the fellow has presented the research through community outreach activities at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. These community outreach activities have reached individuals in the San Diego area interested in science. The fellow has also been participating in the design of classroom materials for local high schools incorporating aspects of the fellow's research. The fellow has received feedback on the design of the classroom materials from a handful of high school teachers. The fellow has been mentoring an undergraduate student in the lab. Changes/Problems:The fellow has chosen not to do GWAS on Medicago truncatula, based on limited seeds of natural accessions available in the lab and the time and resources required to generate more seeds from each accession. The fellow will analyze mutant lines of orthologous genes identified from Arabidopsis and Lotus GWAS analyses to determine if there is conservation in the response. Based on feedback from high school teachers, the module designed for classrooms will consist of a dataset that includes phenotypic data from Arabidopsis accessions, and climate data from the center of origin for each accessions. The students will have the opportunity to plot the data and investigate the correlation between phenotype and climate data. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The fellow has had the opportuniy to participate in outreach activities at the Salk Institute, including High School Science Day, Explore Salk, and Ellen Potter High School teacher symposium. The fellow received a certificate for completion of "Introduction to College Teaching", a course offered at University of California-San Diego. The fellow has presented data to members of the Plant Biology department at the Salk Institute. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The fellow has participated in Explore Salk, where membersof the community are invited to the institute and ongoing projects are discussed. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?To accomplish these goals the fellow will: 1. Increase the range of doses of volatile chemicals to better define the range of responses to each volatile. The fellow will choose an additional volatile chemical to futher characterize. 2. Test the impact of plant hormones by including more hormone response mutants. 3. Perform GWAS on Lotus japonicus for the volatile characterized in Arabidopsis. Mutant lines from candidate genes will be ordered and analyzed to confirm significantly identified associations.The orthologous genes of candidates in Arabidopsis will be analyzed in Lotus to determine if there is a common mechanism of function. An additional GWAS will be carried out on another volatile chemical. 4. Continue to mentor an undergraduate student in the lab. After getting feedback from high schoolteachers, the outreach materials will be streamlined and a kit will be distributed to area high schools in Fall of 2019.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The numbering of the accomplishment corresponds to the number of thegoals. 1. The physiological effect of VOCs has been assessed in Arabidopsis thaliana and Lotus japonicus for volitile organic compounds. 2. A subset of mutant lines in Arabidopsis thaliana have been confirmed and the contribution of these hormone responses have been assessed for one volatile that was chosen for future study. The response of the volatile chosen for further analysis has not been identified to interact with hormones in a preliminary experiment. 3. Genome-wide association studies have carried out on 900 natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana for one volatile compound. 4. An undergraduate student has been recruited and is starting a second quarter in the lab. The fellow has developed a collaboration with local high school teachers with the help of the Education Outreach department at Salk, and a dataset has been developed for a high school biology class unit.
Publications
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