EAGER: Targeted and specific elimination of plant chromosomes

在这个快速变化和干旱的世界，快速培育和发展适应气候的作物品种是美国国家竞争力和可持续性的必要基础。这一提议将CRISPR的基因组编辑从主要使用修改或改变一个或几个基因，转变为一种迫切需要的基因组规模改变的新工具，以加速育种。这项新技术的发展可以影响多种作物的育种，包括异源多倍体作物，如小麦、油菜和花生，这些作物因其基因组复杂性而具有挑战性，但它们是美国主食的关键组成部分。在外联方面，本科生和研究生将在这个项目的背景下接受高级植物基因组学和分子生物学的培训。此外，它将提供机会，使代表性不足的群体接触到与stem相关的工作，通过面向公众，特别是年轻观众的出版物、演讲和/或外联视频传播这项工作的概念、方法和社会影响。该策略需要将CRISPR定位于精心挑选的染色体序列，这样“免疫”染色体存活下来，而目标染色体被淘汰。这导致个体具有特定的，理想的染色体组，例如来自特定父母的染色体组。目的是证明和优化加入特异性染色体消除和工程消除亲本染色体组在番茄，有效地导致单倍体诱导。利用模型拟南芥和作物番茄，这项工作涉及到鉴定加入和染色体特异性CRISPR靶点的方法，用于快速验证这些靶点，以及基因型和核型特异性驱动的工程。通过靶向消除染色体（TEC）对作物基因组进行基因组级改变，可能在单倍体诱导、操纵异源多倍体基因组和选择杂交后代特定的全基因组单倍型构型方面有广泛的应用前景。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。

In this rapidly changing and drying world, the rapid breeding and development of climate-adapted crop varieties is a necessary foundation of US national competitiveness and sustainability. This proposal takes genome editing by CRISPR from its preponderant use of modification or alteration of one or few genes, to a novel tool for genome-scale alterations that are urgently needed to accelerate breeding. The development of this novel technology can impact the breeding of multiple crops, including allopolyploid ones, such as wheat, canola, and peanut, that can be notoriously challenging due to their genomic complexity, but are critical components of US’s staple foods. In terms of outreach, undergraduate and graduate students will be trained in advanced plant genomics and molecular biology in the context of this project. Additionally, it will provide opportunities for exposing underrepresented groups to STEM-related work through dissemination of the concepts, methods and societal implications of this work through publications, presentations and / or outreach videos geared towards the general public and, specifically, younger audiences.The strategy entails targeting CRISPR to hand-picked sets of chromosomal sequences, so that “immune” chromosomes survive, while targeted chromosomes are eliminated. This results in individuals with specific, desirable chromosome sets, such as those from a given parent. The objectives are to demonstrate and optimize accession-specific chromosome elimination and to engineer elimination of a parental chromosome set in tomato, effectively resulting in haploid induction. Using both the model arabidopsis and the crop tomato, the work involves development of methods for identification of accession- and chromosome-specific CRISPR targets, for rapid validation of these targets, and for engineering of genotype- and karyotype-specific drives. Genome-scale alterations of crop genomes through Targeted Elimination of Chromosomes (TEC), could potentially enable broad application of haploid induction, manipulation of allopolyploid genome, and selection of specific genome-wide haplotypic configurations in hybrid progeny.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.