U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Investigation of Polyploid Genome Evolution

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0128936WendelThis three-year award for U.S.-France collaboration in plant genome research involves students and faculty researchers at Iowa State University and University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France. Jonathan F. Wendel and Malika Ainouche will lead the collaborative program in the US and France respectively. They will study polyploid formation and evolution of novel expression patterns in two complementary model systems, one from the cotton genus Gossypium and the other from the grass genus Spartina. Using a diversity of materials and natural populations from both genera, gene expression will be studied in newly synthesized and older, natural polyploids. Changes that occur immediately after polyploid formation as well as those that arise on an evolutionary time-scale will be evaluated. The researchers will also determine the extent and dynamics of gene silencing using a cDNA-AFLP screen to identify, sequence and verify. Tissue specific partitioning of expression and novel expression in polyploids, compared to their diploid parents, will be examined for duplicated genes where initial screens suggest silencing or novel expression. The Iowa State group brings to this collaboration expertise in natural and synthetic polyploid members of the cotton genus Gossypium. French studies and investigations of the polyploid system from the grass genus Spartina complement this. This award represents the US side of joint proposals to the NSF and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). NSF will cover travel funds and living expenses of the US investigators and graduate students. The CNRS will support visits to US of the French participants. The collaboration will advance understanding of the evolution novel gene expression in higher plants and improvements in cotton agriculture.