植物次生代谢物是植物防御系统的重要组成部分，是决定植物生态适应性的重要因子。玉米在从其祖先种大刍草驯化过程中，除形态结构和适应型发生根本变化外，基因组和转录组也发生了深刻分化。作为基因型-表型联系的纽带—代谢物在玉米驯化中发生了怎样的分化却知之甚少。因此，鉴定玉米驯化过程中发生分化的重要代谢物，阐明控制代谢分化的分子机制，将不仅为进一步理解玉米驯化和适应过程提供新的角度，而且将为培育具有广泛环境适应能力的玉米新品种提供重要基因资源。本项目拟对具有广泛代表性的玉米、大刍草材料进行代谢组测定，鉴定玉米驯化过程中发生代谢分化的化合物，并利用一套由玉米和大刍草杂交衍生的渗入系群体对代谢物的遗传结构进行解析。在此基础上，整合基因组、转录组和代谢组数据大规模鉴定代谢物相关基因，克隆控制代谢分化的关键酶基因和调控因子，完善相应代谢途径，分析代谢分化基因的分子进化特征，揭示玉米驯化中代谢途径的进化过程。

Plant secondary metabolites are major components of the plant’s defense system and thus play a crucial role in determining the ecological adaptation of plants. During the domestication of maize from its wild ancestor, teosinte, dramatic changes have been observed in plant morphology and environmental adaptation as well as in genomic diversity and transcriptome. However, what metabolic changes have occurred during maize domestication is largely unknown. Therefore, it is of great importance to identify metabolites that showed significant divergence between maize and teosinte and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism. The results will not only shed novel insights into the process of maize domestication and adaptation, but also provide new gene resources for breeding elite maize cultivars with optimum environmental adaptation. In this project, we will conduct metabolic profiling for a set of diverse maize and teosinte accessions and identify metabolites that show significant divergence between maize and teosinte. A large population of introgression lines derived from a cross between a typical maize inbred line and a typical accession of teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis) will be used to dissect the genetic architecture of the metabolic variation. Based on the genetic mapping results, the information from multiple omics data including genomics, transcriptome and metabolome will be integrated to identify functional genes underlying metabolic variation. The cloning of important metabolic structural genes and their regulators will greatly contribute to update the metabolic pathways. The analyses of molecular population genetic features of genes controlling metabolic divergence will help clarify how the metabolic pathways have evolved during maize domestication.