SGER: Relationship Between Chemical Mutagenesis, Mutation Load, and Cell Cycle in Plants

本项目旨在了解化学诱变剂处理、M1幼苗存活、突变负荷和植物细胞周期之间的关系。传统的方法依赖于经处理的幼苗的存活作为随后群体中携带的突变负荷的主要决定因素。然而，在各种植物物种中的结果表明，这种措施不是一个很好的预测，导致开发的反向遗传收集与低突变负荷复杂的高通量筛选过程。据推测，在关键时间点应用化学诱变剂（通过测量快速生长的营养组织与缓慢生长的生殖组织中的细胞周期来确定）可能导致携带更高突变负荷的群体发育。这些分子预测器可以应用于任何植物物种，以开发有价值的反向遗传收集。后测序时代的挑战是确定测序基因的生物学功能。反向遗传学--通过寻找导致观察到的表型破坏的病变来发现特定基因--在这一过程中起着至关重要的作用。重要作物物种的大而复杂的基因组需要开发大量的突变体，而迄今为止开发的遗传筛选方法不支持使这种搜索有效所需的高通量。我们的目标是确定这些群体在植物中发展的关键因素。这样的理解可以更好地操纵作物，以维持不断增长的世界人口。突变体的表型、遗传和分子表征为教学提供了极好的工具。因此，该项目的研究活动和成果将与旨在招募和培训各级学生的方案相结合。 项目成果将通过在同行评审的期刊上发表的出版物传播。

This project aims to bring an understanding to the relationship between chemical mutagen treatment, M1 seedling survival, mutation load and cell cycle in plants. Traditional methods rely on survival of treated seedlings as the major determinant to mutation load carried in subsequent populations. However, results in various plant species indicate that this measure is not a good predictor leading to the development of reverse genetic collections with low mutation loads complicating the high throughput screening process. It is hypothesized that application of chemical mutagens at a critical time point, determined by a measure of cell cycle in fast growing vegetative versus slow growing reproductive tissue, may result in development of populations carrying higher mutation load. These molecular predicators can then be applied to any plant species for development of valuable reverse genetic collection.The challenge for the post-sequencing era is to identify the biological functions of sequenced genes. Reverse genetics - the discovery of specific genes by searching for lesions responsible for observed disruptions in phenotype -plays an essential role in that process. The large, complex genomes of important crop species necessitate the development of a large number of mutants, and genetic screening methods developed to date do not support the high throughput necessary for making this search efficient. The goal is to identify the factors critical to the development of these populations in plants. Such understanding may allow better manipulation of crops to sustain an ever-increasing world population. Phenotypic, genetic, and molecular characterization of mutants provides an excellent tool for teaching students. Thus, research activities and outcomes of this project will be interfaced with programs designed to recruit and train students at all levels. Project outcomes will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals.