Developmental programming of the Brassica napus seed

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Canola (Brassica napus) and the seeds derived from this plant represent a multi-billion dollar industry to the Canadian economy and are increasing in demand around the world. Underlying seed development and production is a complex network of regulatory genes and pathways that specify how and when a seed develops. Seeds of canola can be divided into both zygotic and maternal regions. The maternal region can further be divided into several subregions including the funiculus, chalazal seed coat, chalazal proliferating tissue and the distal seed coat. Our understanding of maternal seed subregions is lacking mostly because of their inaccessibility within the seed for molecular and genomic studies. What are the genes responsible for maternal subregion development in canola? What maternal subregion transcription factors are essential for seed development? and How are these genes regulated? We will be studying these questions using laser microdissection technology coupled to Next Generation RNA sequencing to profile patterns of gene activity in specific plant cell types. Our lab has developed expertise in the processing of laser microdissected tissues, building of RNA sequencing libraries and the analysis and development of bioinformatics pipelines to analyze large-scale datasets. We are focusing on the RNAs of the maternal subregions because we have developed deep expertise in the analysis of these molecules. The molecular data will be complemented with in depth histological analysis of maternal subregions in addition to transformants lacking transcriptional regulators with aberrant seed phenotypes. This hypothesis driven research will identify genes essential for seed development that are active specifically in maternal subregions. We will further study how these regulatory pathways are controlled through the profiling of microRNAs. Collectively, this NSERC Discovery Grant will promote the training of three PhD students, one MSc student and undergraduate researchers in the lab and will examine the functional role of maternal subregion transcriptional regulators on seed development including transcription factor and micro RNA populations in the economically and agriculturally important oilseed, canola. The results of this seminal research will contribute to the understanding of seed development for those interested in crop improvement.