TRTech-PGR: Advancing Developmental Regulator (DR)-enabled and Genotype-independent Plant Transformation and Genome Editing (DR-CRISPR)

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A major challenge for plant science is to produce sufficient food and plant-derived products for an ever-growing population despite a changing climate. Substantial public research investments have led to significant advances in decoding plant genetic and genomic information. Translation of this knowledge to create improved crops often requires genetic engineering or genome editing technology to develop or combine desired traits. At present, efficient genetic modifications are only achieved in a small number of crop species or varieties due to limitations of current plant transformation methods. The overall goal of this project is to develop an efficient and open-source genetic transformation and modification system for the agronomically important crop, soybean. The developed tools and resources can be easily extended to different soybean varieties and will be disseminated to the public research community for soybean crop improvement. Genome edited materials produced through this project will be used for public education in partnership with the K-12 Plant Genome Engineering Outreach and Market Science Programs organized at University of Minnesota.Recent progress in genome editing technology is poised to advance plant functional genomics and accelerate translational research for crop improvement. However, ubiquitous applications of genome editing are often hindered by the lack of efficient genetic transformation in many crop species. Recently, an emerging technology has provided the potential to significantly improve genotype-flexible plant regeneration and transformation by ectopic expression of developmental regulator (DR) genes in several crop species, such as maize, wheat and sorghum. However, additional work is needed to thoroughly investigate and extend the DR-mediated regeneration and transformation technology to other crops. This project is designed to develop a facile, genotype-independent and open-source plant transformation platform for efficient genetic engineering and genome editing in soybean. Research will be conducted to: 1) identify a suite of DR genes (or combinations of them) that enhance Agrobacterium-mediated transformation efficiency in soybean; 2) achieve a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying DR-mediated regeneration in soybean through gene regulatory network analysis; 3) develop efficient and open source DR-enabled genome editing toolkits that can be broadly applicable to different soybean varieties; and, 4) disseminate knowledge and train the next generation of scientists in cutting-edge plant transformation and genome editing technologies. The tools and resources developed in this proposal could be readily extended to other related crop species and will be made publicly available.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.