Transposon tagging and fast neutron mutagenesis in soybean: Necessary resources to aid in the translation of genomics information into applied technologies

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PI: Wayne Parrott, Univ. of GeorgiaCo-PI: Tom Clemente, Univ. of Nebraska, Co-PI: Gary Stacey, Univ. of Missouri, ColumbiaCo-PI: Carroll Vance, Univ. of MinnesotaSenior Personnel: Zhanyuan J. Zhang, Univ. of Missouri, ColumbiaThe soybean crop is a major source of vegetable protein and edible oil. A thorough understanding of soybean genetics is essential for the development of new soybean varieties that will meet the nutritional, environmental, and industrial requirements that soybean will fulfill over the next decades. Soybean has many research tools available that facilitate its genetic study. However, there has been one genetic tool notably absent for soybean, namely the availability of reverse genetic tools; that is, a way to identify and determine the function of soybean genes that hold academic, biological or agricultural importance. Therefore, the long-term goal of this project is to develop and distribute the resources to needed to investigate the function of soybean genes, especially those involved in soybean quality and yield. This goal will be accomplished by building and cataloging a collection of soybean deletion, insertional, and gene activation mutants derived by engineering soybeans with genes from rice, tobacco or maize that naturally move around the genome and insert themselves into other genes. Such mutants alter the appearance of the plant, or can be detected in the laboratory. Moreover, the team will investigate the use of fast neutrons to enhance their ability to find the desired mutations. The research team will then compare the relative efficiency and effectiveness of the various techniques.Not only will soybean geneticists, breeders, farmers and consumers benefit from the information this project derives, but the set of transposon tools developed by this proposal will be available and useful for any dicot crop. Furthermore, any soybean plants that are immediately useful for additional genetic studies or for use in the development of new varieties will be immediately available to the geneticists or breeders who need and request them on a cost-recovery basis. The research will be executed in large part by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, effectively helping train the next generation of soybean breeders and geneticists. In addition, each participating state has a series of small research projects that are specifically designed to interest and engage promising high school and undergraduate students in science and scientific careers.Soybean oil and protein are already substrates for numerous industrial and alimentary uses. It is expected that new, designer oils and proteins can be used for everything from healthier diets to nutraceuticals to novel industrial compounds to biodiesel. The genetic knowledge and information on the available seed stocks will be made available to the public via a web site (http://digbio.missouri.edu/gmgenedb/index.php) designed for the purpose, presentations by the scientists of their work at scientific meetings, and reports of the work published in peer-reviewed journals.