INTEGRATIVE MULTI-OMICS TO ELUCIDATE MECHANISMS AND IMPLICATIONS OF MICROBIOME EVOLUTION TO AGI-FOOD NANOMATERIALS IN FOOD SYSTEM

The proposal will address the following priorities in the program of Nanotechnology for Agricultural and Food Systems (A1511): 1) Environmental, health, and safety assessments of engineered nanoparticles used in food and agricultural systems, including detection and quantification of engineered nanoparticles, characterization of hazards, exposure levels, transport, and the fate of the engineered nanoparticles or nanomaterials in foods, crops, soils (and soil biota), water, and livestock (including aquaculture species), or to agricultural and allied industry workers. This may also include animal feed formulations and processes that utilize novel nanomaterials or develop new nanostructured materials or nanoparticles that are bio-persistent in digestive pathways. 2) Discovery and characterization of nanoscale phenomena, processes, and structures relevant and important to agriculture and food. Although agrifood nanomaterials' (NMs) cytotoxicity and pathophysiology on eukaryotic cells, especially mammalian cells, are generally well characterized and studied, very little is known about NMs' impact on prokaryotic evolution and adaptation and microbiome composition, especially in agrifood environments. Addressing this knowledge gap has profound implications for food security and food safety. In this proposal, we will attempt to address this critical knowledge gap using a state-of-the-art multi-omics and machine learning platform. There are three main goals and objectives: 1) Synthesis and characterizations of monodisperse NMs used in agrifood systems. 2) Impacts of NMs on microbiome structure in agrifood environments. 3) Multi-omics study on the mechanism of pathogen evolution and adaptation to NMs.