SBIR Phase I: Identification of salt and drought tolerance genes for crop plant improvement.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目是一个具有成本效益的，快速的方法来确定控制耐盐性的作物基因。这些基因可用于培育能够承受盐条件的作物。我们计划通过一种新的方法来鉴定耐盐基因，该方法利用了进化生物学理论的见解。加拉帕戈斯番茄对高盐水平具有极强的耐受性，这是因为当它第一次在加拉帕戈斯殖民时，对这个物种施加了强大的选择压力。我们计划通过比较加拉帕戈斯番茄和现代栽培番茄的转录组，来确定适应加拉帕戈斯番茄赋予耐盐性的基因。我们的方法是首先将搜索范围缩小到积极选择的基因，即经历了适应性进化以适应特定目的或需要的基因。这将通过对加拉帕戈斯番茄的转录组进行高通量测序来实现，然后对那些具有分子正选择的独特特征的基因进行生物信息学筛选。我们希望找到一组赋予耐盐性的基因;这些基因可以用于改善作物的耐盐性。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是最终开发能够耐受盐碱土壤条件的作物。每年约有2 400万英亩的可耕地因盐碱化而荒废。如果在土地盐碱化的情况下仍能保持作物生产力，粮食产量就可以增加。除了扩大粮食供应和增加潜在可耕地的不可估量的社会影响外，该项目还将具有重大的商业价值，因为据估计，提高作物的耐盐性价值数亿美元。最后，这个项目如果成功，将对我们对植物耐盐机制的科学理解产生影响，以及在小的孤立种群中运作的适应过程。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is a cost-effective, rapid approach to identify crop plant genes controlling salinity tolerance. These genes can be used to develop crop plants able to withstand saline conditions. We plan to identify salt tolerance genes by a novel method that takes advantage of insights from evolutionary biology theory. The Galapagos tomato is extremely tolerant to high salt levels as a result of the strong selective pressures brought to bear on this species when it first colonized the Galapagos. We plan to identify the genes that adapted in the Galapagos tomato to confer halotolerance, by comparing the transcriptome of the Galapagos tomato to the modern cultivated tomato. Our approach is to first narrow the search to positively selected genes, that is, genes that have undergone adaptive evolution to suit a particular purpose or need. This will be accomplished by high-throughput sequencing of the transcriptome of the Galapagos tomato, followed by a bioinformatic screening for those genes that bear the distinctive signature of molecular positive selection. We expect to find a set of genes that confer salt tolerance; these can then be used for improvement of crop plant halotolerance.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be the ultimate development of crop plants able to withstand saline soil conditions. Some 24 million acres of arable land are abandoned each year due to salinization. Food production could be increased if crop productivities can be maintained in spite of land salinization. In addition to the immeasurable societal impact of extending food supply and increasing potentially available arable land, this project will have a significant commercial value, as improving salt tolerance in crop plants has been estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Finally, this project, if successful, will have an impact on our scientific understanding of salt tolerance mechanisms in plants, and of the adaptive processes that operate in small isolated populations.