Developing Frontier Agri-Science Inc technology for crop drought tolerance

FronTier农业科学公司是一家专注于作物性状开发的加拿大农业生物技术公司。他们的主要重点领域之一是发展耐旱性，这是维持世界范围内作物产量的最重要问题。现在有四个基因靶点，当使用一种生物技术方法改变时，Frontiers已经证明可以在包括拟南芥、油菜籽和草坪草在内的几种植物中赋予抗旱性。然而，对于Frontiers这样的小公司来说，从监管角度来看，采用转基因方法进行作物改良成本太高，除非将技术出售给其中一家大型种子公司。 另一种方法是使用核苷酸序列变异，自驯化开始以来，这种变异一直被用于作物改良。TILLING(靶向诱导的局部损伤IN基因组)是一种这样的反向遗传(非转基因)策略，它结合了传统的突变和高通量、经济高效的单核苷酸变化的发现。FronTier最近编辑了一系列水稻分蘖系，代表了四个基因，它们调控着先前在拟南芥、油菜籽和斑茅中发现的赋予非生物逆境抗性的分子遗传靶标的表达。水稻(Oryza sativa L.)它是最重要的农业作物之一，是世界一半以上人口的主食，也是研究重要性状的理想遗传系统，将所用知识转移到其他感兴趣的作物，包括小麦和玉米。成功的结果将使Frontier能够自信地投入时间和 它将需要财政资源来推动新品种和商业关系的开发和营销。这项工作是在Frontier和Rothstein研究小组之间建立合作关系的第一步，有可能成为从技术发现到早期演示再到商业化的管道。

Frontier Agri-Science Inc is a Canadian agricultural biotechnology company focused on crop trait development. One of their primary areas of focus is in developing drought tolerance which is the single most important problem in maintaining crop yields world-wide. There are now four gene targets that when altered using a biotechnological approach that Frontiers has demonstrated can give drought tolerance in several plant species including Arabidopsis, canola and turfgrass. However, for a small company like Frontiers it is far too expensive from a regulatory point of view to take a GM approach to crop improvement unless the technology is sold to one of the large seed companies. An alternative approach is to use nucleotide sequence variation that has been utilized for crop improvement since domestication first began. TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes) is one such reverse genetic (non-transgenic) strategy that combines traditional mutagenesis with high-throughput, cost effective discovery of single-nucleotide changes. Frontier has recently compiled a series of rice TILLING lines, representing four genes that regulate the expression of their previously identified molecular genetic targets that confer abiotic stress resistance in Arabidopsis, canola and bentgrass. While rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most agronomically important crops and is a staple food for more than half of the world's population, it is also an ideal genetic system to study traits of importance with the knowledge used transferred to other crops of interest including wheat and corn. Successful outcomes will allow Frontier to confidently invest the time and financial resources it will require to move forward with the development and marketing of new varieties and commercial relationships. This work represents the first step in establishing a collaborative relationship between Frontier and the Rothstein research group with the potential to act as a pipeline from technology discovery, through early stage demonstration and onward toward commercialization.