Collaborative Research: Mechanisms and manipulation of maize meristem size

分生组织（植物干细胞群）的大小调控在植物发育和作物生产力中起着重要作用。在驯化几种作物物种期间，分生组织大小的增加导致了更大的果实和花序，并继续提供巨大的增产潜力。这一建议将提供对增加玉米穗大小所必需的遗传和分子机制的透彻理解，玉米是世界主要作物，这有可能转化为商业杂交品种的增产。这项研究将与高中生积极的科学训练相结合，并与一个新的研究型教学模块相结合，该模块将经典的基因分析与为研究生量身定制的转化研究相结合。在控制分生组织大小的调控网络的核心是转录因子WUSCHEL （WUS）。WUSCHEL功能在单子叶植物和双子叶植物之间具有多样性。然而，在玉米中，WUS的功能尚未被探索，尽管它在植物发育中很重要，并且最近在植物转化技术中得到了应用。本研究将通过对玉米花序单细胞转录组学的研究，结合遗传分析和转基因方法，揭示重复WUS基因在玉米中的功能及其作为转录抑制因子的作用。这项工作旨在揭示玉米和单子叶分生组织大小调控的关键机制细节，回答长期存在的关于WUS功能进化保护或多样化的问题，并揭示新的调控靶点，可以通过基因操纵来提高玉米产量和提高转化效率。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The regulation of the size of meristems, groups of plant stem cells, plays an important role in plant development and crop productivity. Increases in meristem size achieved during the domestication of several crop species resulted in bigger fruits and inflorescences, and continue to offer great potential to increase yield. This proposal will provide a thorough understanding of the genetic and molecular mechanisms essential for increasing ear size in maize, a major crop worldwide, that can potentially translate to increased yields in commercial hybrids. The research will be integrated with active scientific training of high school students, and with a new research-based teaching module that combines classic genetic analysis with translational research tailored to graduate students. At the heart of the regulatory network controlling meristem size is the transcription factor WUSCHEL (WUS). WUSCHEL function has been proposed to have diversified between monocot and eudicot species. In maize, however, WUS function has yet to be explored, despite its importance in plant development and its recent use in plant transformation technologies. The proposed research will reveal the function of duplicated WUS genes in maize and their role as transcriptional repressors by combining genetic analysis and transgenic approaches with single cell transcriptomics of maize inflorescences. This work aims to uncover key mechanistic details of meristem size regulation in maize and monocots in general, answering long-standing questions regarding evolutionary conservation or diversification of WUS function, and to reveal new regulatory targets that could be genetically manipulated to increase maize yield and improve transformation efficiency.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.