2010 Project

The Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces its intention to continue support of research to determine the functions of all genes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana by the year 2010. Individual investigators or groups of investigators will be supported to conduct creative and innovative, genome-wide or systems-level research designed to determine, using all available means, the functions of Arabidopsis genes. In the final two years, the Program will continue to support genome-wide analyses and research on biological networks using high throughput methods and integrating modeling with experimental data.

Proposals are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following thematic areas:  (1) metabolic biology, particularly relevant to energy capture and use; (2) adaptation to the environment, (3) multi-scale analysis of genome evolution and genetic systems, and (4) developing resources for genome-wide experimental approaches to determine gene function in Arabidopsis. Resource proposals will only be accepted in FY 2009. 

1. Metabolic biology, particularly relevant to energy capture and use

To address future energy challenges, bioinspired energy resources and technologies are likely to be critical.  Studies on metabolic biology, from a molecular to organismal to ecological perspective, will provide critical information about the energy management of living systems. The molecular underpinnings for potentially useful strategies for producing novel biological materials as energy resources will be encouraged in the 2010 Project.

2. Adaptation to the environment

Efforts to determine the function of genes and gene networks will continue to be supported in FY 2009 and 2010. Proposals that seek to determine the function of Arabidopsis genes and gene networks involved in plant responses to the environment and in adaptation to biotic or abiotic conditions will be especially encouraged.  Studies on adaptation-related biological processes in plants, including physiological and metabolic processes, as well as on meta-networks connecting these processes, are encouraged.  Such projects are expected to include protein-coding genes, genes for functional non-protein coding RNAs, or both. The 2010 Project encourages proposals that will take a holistic view of systems biology to incorporate the biology of Arabidopsis in the context of interacting species as well as the environment.