Plant Biotic Interactions

The Plant Biotic Interactions (PBI) program is a joint initiative by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). This program focuses on promoting research regarding the interactions between plants and various organisms like viruses, bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates that serve as symbionts, pathogens, or pests.

The research includes understanding both beneficial and harmful interactions. It spans from discovering fundamental mechanisms to making an effort to translate this information into practical applications for agriculture. The program aims to use revelations from basic research about the principles governing plant biotic interactions to improve agricultural practices.

Both model, non-model systems and agriculturally significant plants are part of the PBI program's research scope. The projects for this initiative need to hold a substantial significance in the areas of essential biological processes or agricultural relevance. The program allows for proposals that are purely research-focused, applied research, or a combination of both.

The PBI program encompasses all forms of symbiosis, such as commensalism, mutualism, parasitism, and host-pathogen interactions. The research can be related to the biology of the plant, its pests, pathogens, or symbionts, their interactions, or the function of plant-associated microbiomes. It also includes proposals on the dynamics of starting, transmitting, maintaining, and resulting in these complex associations.

There is an interest in several different areas of study, such as metabolic interactions, immune recognition and signaling, host-symbiont regulation, reciprocal responses amongst interacting species, and mechanisms related to self/non-self recognition, like those in pollen-pistil interactions.

The program encourages the use of molecular, genomic, metabolic, cellular, network, and organismal processes to study and understand these interactions. It supports both hypothesis and discovery-driven experimental method. However, it's worth noting that ecological projects that don't delve into underlying mechanisms are not suitable for this program.

There is a strong push towards incorporating quantitative modeling alongside experimental work. The ultimate target of the PBI program is to enhance our understanding of the fundamental processes mediating relationships between plants and their associated organisms, and apply this knowledge to benefit agriculture.