Physiological and Genetic Mechanisms Underlying Salt Tolerance in Rice Across Developmental Stages

合作者：Mark Tester（澳大利亚植物功能基因组学中心）、Abdelbagi Ismail（菲律宾国际水稻研究所）、Susan McCouch（康奈尔大学）。盐度是灌溉农业的主要环境限制之一，每年造成的产量损失估计超过120亿美元。只有17%的农业得到灌溉，但它提供了全球三分之一的粮食供应。水稻可以说是全球粮食安全最重要的作物，但也是主要谷物中对盐最敏感的作物。水稻耐盐遗传变异的程度在很大程度上是未知的和未充分利用的。本项目旨在通过利用新开发的基因组资源，结合高通量图像表型分析的最新进展来填补这一知识空白，阐明对盐度胁迫适应性反应的潜在遗传基础。该项目将提供基因组水平的信息，将与水稻耐盐性生理反应相关的基因和途径联系起来。从这项工作中获得的知识最终将告诉育种者，在种质资源库中存在的巨大遗传多样性中的哪些等位基因可以引入到耐盐的优良品种中。这项对盐胁迫对水稻生理影响的综合研究将对小麦和玉米等其他谷物具有广泛的指导意义。在数据分析过程中使用和改进的生物学知识和方法对于具有重要表型组学和基因组学成分的大型生物学项目都是有价值的。序列数据将存放在NCBI和Gramene。表型、序列和GWAS数据将通过项目网站提供。图像分析软件和脚本将根据要求提供。研究人员将为内布拉斯加州大学植物生理学和图像分析课程的本科生以及阿肯色州立大学研究生和主要少数民族本科生的夏季研讨会开发多学科主动学习模块。基于本项目研究的教学材料的开发将在传统和在线学习环境中广泛使用。六名学生和博士后科学家将在植物生理学、定量遗传学、生物信息学和图像信息学交叉的多学科研究中接受培训。由于高通量表型分析越来越多地应用于工业，但在大多数公共机构尚无法进行研究和培训，因此对学生进行表型组学培训将填补空白。

PI: Harkamal Walia (University of Nebraska)CoPIs: Dong Wang, Aaron Lorenz, Ashok Samal(University of Nebraska), Argelia Lorence (Arkansas State University)Collaborators: Mark Tester (Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics), Abdelbagi Ismail (International Rice Research Institute, The Philippines), Susan McCouch (Cornell University)Salinity is one of the major environmental limitations for irrigated agriculture with yield losses estimated to exceed $12 billion dollars annually. Only 17% of agriculture is under irrigation, yet it provides a third of the global food supply. Rice is arguably the most important crop for global food security, but is also the most salt-sensitive among staple cereals. The extent of genetic variation for salt tolerance in rice is largely unknown and under-utilized. This project aims to fill this knowledge gap by utilizing newly developed genomic resources in combination with recent advances in high-throughput image-based phenotyping to elucidate the underlying genetic basis of adaptive responses to salinity stress. This project will provide genome-level information that will link genes and pathways associated with physiological responses associated with salinity tolerance in rice. Knowledge derived from this work will ultimately inform breeders as to which alleles present in the vast genetic diversity of germplasm banks can be introduced into elite cultivars for salt tolerance. This comprehensive study of physiological impact of salt stress in rice will be broadly useful for other cereals such as wheat and maize. Both the biological knowledge and the methodologies used and refined during the course of data analysis will be valuable for large-scale biology projects that have significant phenomics and genomics components.Sequence data will be deposited at the NCBI and Gramene. Phenotypic, sequence, and GWAS data will be available via the project website. Image analysis software and scripts will be available upon request. Investigators will develop multidisciplinary active learning modules for undergraduate students in Plant Physiology and Image Analysis courses at the University of Nebraska and at summer workshops for graduate students and predominantly minority undergraduates at Arkansas State University. Development of instructional material based on the research in this project will be broadly useful in both traditional and online learning environments. Six students and postdoctoral scientists will be trained in multidisciplinary research at the intersection of plant physiology, quantitative genetics, bioinformatics and image informatics. Training students in phenomics will fill a void as high-throughput phenotyping is increasingly deployed in industry but not yet available at most public institutions for research and training.