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

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）一期项目是一种成本效益高、快速识别作物耐盐基因的方法。这些基因可以用来培育能够承受盐水条件的作物。我们计划通过一种利用进化生物学理论的新方法来鉴定耐盐基因。加拉帕戈斯番茄对高盐的耐受性非常强，这是它首次在加拉帕戈斯殖民时所面临的强大选择压力的结果。我们计划通过比较加拉帕戈斯番茄与现代栽培番茄的转录组，确定适应加拉帕戈斯番茄的基因，从而赋予其耐盐性。我们的方法是首先将搜索范围缩小到积极选择的基因，也就是说，经过适应性进化以适应特定目的或需求的基因。这将通过对加拉帕戈斯番茄的转录组进行高通量测序，然后对那些具有分子积极选择特征的基因进行生物信息学筛选来完成。我们希望找到一组具有耐盐性的基因；这些可以用来改善作物的耐盐性。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是能够承受盐碱地条件的作物植物的最终发展。每年约有2400万英亩耕地因盐碱化而被废弃。如果能够在土地盐碱化的情况下保持作物生产力，粮食生产就可以增加。除了扩大粮食供应和增加潜在可用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.