NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Plant Cell Networking

This action funds an NSF Plant Genome Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023. 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 Dr. Imani Madison is “Plant Cell Networking” The host institution for the fellowship is North Carolina State University and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Rosangela Sozzani. Plant cells communicate with each other to coordinate growth, establish cell identity, and transmit stress responses through various signaling molecules and pathways. Plant intercellular communication is mediated by plasmodesmata, or gated channels in cell walls. Harnessing control over plasmodesmata formation, gating, and trafficking is key to regulating intercellular communication. Overall, this project will investigate how plasmodesmata form in cell walls and regulate intercellular molecular movement. In whole plants, it is challenging to study plasmodesmata due to their small size and the difficulty of creating mutant study systems. This project will address this challenge through the use of innovative 3D bioprinting technology to create plant single-cell systems, derived from soybean, to study cell walls as they form. This project will also investigate how either genome editing or compound treatments can control intercellular communication. As plasmodesmata are present across all plant species, they present a universal target for influencing cell communication under various abiotic or biotic stressors. To successfully complete these goals, the Fellow will continue her training in confocal microscopy techniques and gain expertise in single-cell genome editing as well as data and project management. This research will also provide opportunities for community outreach and participation of historically excluded scientists. To facilitate these opportunities, the Fellow will take mentorship and leadership training as well as lead workshops at the sponsor institution to introduce the importance of this work to the broader community.To create the study system, soybean cells will be isolated by cell wall digestion and then bioprinted. Bioprinted cells will then be visualized using electron microscopy to detect plasmodesmata. To complement this technique, fluorescent probes and genome editing will be used to fluorescently label plasmodesmata to detect the dynamics of plasmodesmata biogenesis and localization in cells as they divide and reform cell walls. To quantify the dynamics of intercellular communication, fluorescent mobile probes will be applied to bioprinted cells and their flux rate will be measured to estimate the movement of both large and small molecules. Finally, to manipulate intercellular communication, a high throughput compound screen will be performed to quantify to what extent communication can be enhanced, inhibited, or decreased and whether these compounds have permanent effects. Overall, this will provide a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of cell communication and how extensively it can be controlled. Going forward, this will be useful in efforts to improve crop growth in areas such as inhibiting intercellular pathogen spread and improving aspects of plant development and environmental responses that are reliant on cell communication.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.