Project Grant 2218234

This $220,848 two-year Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences will fund the development of new approaches for spatial transcriptome analysis in plants under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074). The awardee, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, will leverage existing fluorescent reporter gene lines to perform single-cell RNA sequencing and fluorescent imaging of the meristematic region of plant roots. Machine learning models will be applied to predict gene expression patterns in fluorescent and non-fluorescent cells and develop a 3D root model integrating sequencing data and fluorescence. The results will provide a new method for generating high-resolution 3D expression maps in plant species and address questions regarding asymmetrical gene expression in root development and stress responses.