Genomics of Adaption to Climate Change in Rice

面对气候变化，以可持续的方式养活不断增长的人口需要我们解决作物耐受逆境(特别是温度、降水和土壤因素)的遗传基础。与野生物种相比，农作物的抗逆性遗传多样性降低；对作物-野生近缘关系的分析可以导致识别可培育成商业品种的适应性遗传变异。在这个项目中，学生将使用野生水稻基因组规模的数据来识别与环境适应有关的基因，确认这些基因的作用，并确定适应等位基因的分布是否随着时间的推移而改变。水稻是世界上近一半人口的主食，因此存在着丰富的基因组数据和种子材料。然而，这些数据还没有被彻底分析，我们已经确定了一种识别适应性遗传变异的新的尖端方法。三个关键阶段是：将分析当地适应的野生水稻和当地重要的栽培品种的基因组，以确定与土壤和气候适应有关的基因。候选基因将使用转基因技术进行功能测试。对20-100年前的标本进行适应性等位基因测序，将评估等位基因频率如何随时间变化，并对气候变化的适应能力产生影响。

Feeding a growing population sustainably in the face of climate change requires us to resolve the genetic basis of crop tolerance to stress (especially temperature, precipitation and edaphic factors). Crops have reduced genetic diversity for stress tolerances compared to wild species; the analysis of crop-wild relatives can lead to the identification of adaptive genetic variation that can be bred into commercial cultivars. In this project, the student will use genome-scale data for wild rice to identify genes involved in environmental adaptation, confirm the role of these genes, and determine if the distributions of adaptive alleles have changed over time. Rice is a staple for almost half of the world population, therefore plentiful genomic data and seed material exists. Yet the data has not been exhaustively analysed, and we have identified a novel cutting-edge way to identify adaptive genetic variation. The three key stages are: Genomes of locally adapted wild rice and locally important cultivars will be analysed to identify genes involved in adaptation to soil and climate. Candidate genes will be functionally tested using transgenics. Sequencing of adaptive alleles from 20-100-year-old herbarium samples will assess how allele frequencies change over time, with implications for climate change resilience.