Collaborative Research: Mechanisms and manipulation of maize meristem size

植物分生组织是植物干细胞群，其大小的调控在植物发育和作物生产中起着重要作用。在几种作物的驯化过程中，分生组织尺寸的增加导致了更大的果实和花序，并继续为提高产量提供巨大的潜力。该提案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，玉米是全球主要作物，可能会转化为商业杂交种产量的增加。这项研究将与高中生的积极科学培训相结合，并与一个新的基于研究的教学模块相结合，该模块将经典的遗传分析与为研究生量身定制的转化研究相结合。控制分生组织大小的调节网络的核心是转录因子WUSCHEL（WUS）。WUSCHEL功能在单子叶植物和真双子叶植物物种之间存在差异。然而，在玉米中，WUS功能尚未被探索，尽管它在植物发育中的重要性和最近在植物转化技术中的应用。该研究将通过遗传分析和转基因方法与玉米花序单细胞转录组学相结合，揭示玉米中重复WUS基因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植物分生组织大小调节的关键机制细节，回答长期存在的关于WUS功能进化保守或多样化的问题，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.