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INVESTIGATOR: Zhou, S.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
3500 JOHN A. MERRITT BLVD
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 37209

TRANSGENERATIONAL ADAPTATION OF PLANTS TO ACIDIC PH AND TOXIC METALS IN SOIL

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This collaborative research project (Tennessee State University, Delaware State University and USDA/ARS) is aligned with Program Priority Area g: Sustainable Agriculture and addresses CBG need areas: Advancing Agricultural Sciences, and secondly: Building a Centralized Research Support Systems. Our earlier studies on aluminum (Al)-treated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants have shown that progenies from successive generations grown under sub-lethal Al challenged conditions produced successively larger and more developed root systems, compared to those from non-treated parental plants. To understand this phenomenon we propose to develop the research capacities to investigate and utilize the transgenerational plasticity observed and to build a research leadership team to utilize the science and technology discovered to advance sustainable agriculture. To these ends, we propose to: 1) identify Al and acidic stress-induced methylomes, transcriptomes and proteomes in tomato plants; 2) develop an understanding of the molecular mechanisms which drive the process toward transgenerational adaption to these stress factors, through an integrated analysis of these omics data; and 3) implement a Tomato Cyber Lab for managing and sharing of the omics data in compliance with Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable (FAIR) principles, and for participants to have secure access to instruments in real-time allowing hands on learning from geographically distant locations. The outcomes of the proposed research will include new scientific knowledge for improving plant resilience against environmental stress, enhanced skill sets, expertise and research prowess among the faculty and students of two premier 1890 Universities, with anticipated impacts on an increased capacity to develop sustainable agricultural programs.

OBJECTIVES: This is a collaborative project among Tennessee State University (TSU), Delaware State University (DSU), and USDA-ARS (Cornell). The goals of this proposal are: 1) to build research capacities for investigating molecular mechanisms underlying transgenerational adaptation to aluminum (Al) and acid stress observed in tomato plants, 2) to develop a Cyber-based platform for increasing the efficiency in conducting research and broadening the pool of researchers who will deliver the science and technology derived from the project to promote sustainable agriculture.The project has three objectives:To identify Al and acid stress-induced methylomes (DSU), transcriptomes (TSU) and proteomes (USDA) in tomato plants showing transgenerational adaptation phenotypes; To develop an understanding of the molecular mechanisms which drive the transgenerational adaption process, through an integrated analysis of these omics data;To implement a Tomato Cyber Lab for managing and sharing of the omics data in compliance with Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable (FAIR) principles , and for participants to have access to resources at geographically distant locations.