Maize Artificial Chromosomes

该项目的总体目标是研究植物中的人工染色体技术。人工染色体有可能将对农业和基础植物基因组学研究有益的基因堆积在一条独立的染色体上，该染色体可以根据具体情况进行制作。将开发出将新基因添加到先前存在的人工染色体平台上的程序，这些程序可以继续永久地进行修改。其次，将测试允许在单个增量中向微染色体添加比目前可能的数量多得多的基因的方法。第三，将人工染色体与单倍体育种相结合，更有效地将微染色体引入多个新品种。第四，将进行花粉选择测试，以最大限度地将人工染色体传递给下一代。人工或工程微型染色体有可能为转基因整合到植物基因组中提供一个预先确定的位置，而不是目前使用的植物转化的随机性质。定向插入将避免潜在的突变效应和基因沉默，这通常是由于不受控制的整合造成的。此外，现在存在这样一种可能性，即许多不同的决定植物特征的基因可以同时转化到一个可以进一步修饰的微型染色体上，这个染色体独立于正常的染色体。随着人造染色体的使用，应该可以引入完整的生化途径，为植物增加新的特性，从而促进最大限度地提高最终产量，或者将植物用作廉价生产有用蛋白质或代谢物的工厂。对于基础研究，人工染色体提供了产生符合规格的染色体的方法，这将有助于研究染色体行为和基因表达等主题。地球上的耕地数量已经停滞不前一段时间，但全球人口继续增加。如果世界生活水平要保持不变或有所改善，未来几十年农业生产的粮食数量将需要增加。解决这一问题需要许多新的发展，但操纵植物基因组的新方法被认为是这一努力的主要贡献者。植物人工染色体平台的开发和增强可能有助于解决这一问题。所制定的程序应易于适应其他植物物种，从而可作为向它们转让的示范系统。培训将涉及植物基因组学和生物技术方面的不同本科生和研究生。关于该项目及其成果的信息可在项目网站(http://maizeminichromosomes.missouri.edu)和MaizeGDB)上查阅。这些资料包括关于项目目标、成果、参与者、出版物以及生物资源生产的详细信息，如病媒和玉米品系以及用于生产这些资源的议定书。此外，还可以通过项目网站MaizeGDB和ResearchGate(http://www.researchgate.net/).)访问Youtube视频的链接，这些视频说明了项目所涉及的技术

The overall goal of this project is to artificial chromosome technology in plants. Artificial chromosomes have the potential to stack genes of benefit to agriculture and basic plant genomics studies on an independent chromosome that can be made to specification. Procedures to add new genes to pre-existing artificial chromosome platforms will be developed that can continue to make amendments in perpetuity. Secondly, methods will be tested that allow much larger numbers of genes to be added to a minichromosome in a single increment than is currently possible. Thirdly, the combination of artificial chromosomes with haploid breeding to introduce the minichromosomes into multiple new varieties more efficiently will be developed. Fourthly, a test of pollen selection to maximize the transmission of artificial chromosomes from one generation to the next will be conducted. Artificial or engineered minichromosomes have the potential to provide a pre-determined site of transgene integration into a plant genome rather than the random nature of plant transformation that is currently used. The targeted insertion will avoid the potential mutagenic effect and gene silencing that often results from uncontrolled integrations. Moreover, the potential now exists that many different genes determining several plant characteristics can be transformed at once onto a minichromosome that can be further modified and that is independent of the normal chromosomes. With the use of artificial chromosomes it should be possible to introduce whole biochemical pathways to add new properties to plants that would facilitate maximizing the ultimate yield or to use plants as factories for the inexpensive production of useful proteins or metabolites. For basic studies, artificial chromosomes provide the means to generate chromosomes to specification that will facilitate the study of chromosome behavior and gene expression among other subjects.The amount of arable land on earth has been static for some time but the global population continues to increase. If the world standard of living is to remain as is or improve, the amount of food produced by agricultural endeavors will need to increase over the coming decades. Many new developments will be needed to address this issue but novel means of manipulating plant genomes is thought to be a major contributor to this effort. The development of plant artificial chromosome platforms and their enhancement might help with this problem. The procedures developed should be easily adapted to other plant species and thus can serve as a model system for transfer to them. Training will involve diverse undergraduate and graduate students in plant genomics and biotechnology. Information about this project and its outcomes can be accessed at the project website (http://maizeminichromosomes.missouri.edu) and MaizeGDB. These include detailed information about project objectives, results, participants, publications as well as biological resources produced such as vectors and maize lines and the protocols used to generate them. In addition, links to YouTube videos illustrating the techniques involved in the project will be accessible through the project website, MaizeGDB and ResearchGate (http://www.researchgate.net/).