Functional Genomic Analysis of Fruit Flavor and Nutrition Pathways

风味和营养品质是高度复杂的性状，这使得它们难以成为传统作物改良方法的目标。番茄是果实发育、遗传学和生物化学的既定模型，最近已成为一个由十个国家组成的国际联盟进行基因组测序的目标。该项目旨在改善风味和营养，识别参与合成必需代谢物的基因。将利用高通量代谢物筛选技术对多样化和特性良好的番茄种质进行评估，以鉴定风味和营养成分发生变化的品系。将采用综合遗传学、基因组学和生物信息学方法分离导致遗传变异的基因。在该计划的第一阶段，确定了影响果实成分的多个遗传位点，并建立了一个公共数据库来传播收集到的信息（http://tomet.bti.cornell.edu/）。这些资源将扩大，以确定控制约30种代谢物合成的基因，这些代谢物在风味和营养品质中起主要作用。完成后，公众将可以获得超过200种水果代谢物的数据和75个番茄品系中大约10,000个基因的表达数据。这项研究对人类饮食的风味和营养具有广泛的意义。识别控制风味和营养品质的基因将对传统育种和生物技术项目产生积极影响，并对最终用户产生直接影响。该项目将为学生和博士后提供广泛的遗传、基因组、生物信息学和生化技术方面的培训。在以少数民族为主的机构中，非常强调为合作者提供培训机会。虽然这个项目解决了一种主要农作物的重要属性，但研究结果将直接适用于美国和世界各地种植的许多其他重要作物。

Flavor and nutritional quality are highly complex traits that make them difficult targets for traditional approaches for crop improvement. Tomato is the established model for fruit development, genetics and biochemistry and has recently been targeted for genome sequencing by an international consortium of ten nations. This project targets the improvement of flavor and nutrition, identifying genes involved in synthesis of essential metabolites. The diverse and well-characterized tomato germplasm will be evaluated with high throughput metabolite screens to identify lines altered in flavor and nutrient composition. An integrated genetic, genomic and bioinformatic approach will be employed for the purpose of isolating the genes responsible for the genetic variation. In the first phase of the program, multiple genetic loci that influence fruit composition were identified and a public database was established to disseminate the collected information (http://tomet.bti.cornell.edu/). These resources will be expanded in order to identify genes controlling synthesis of ~30 metabolites with major functions in flavor and nutrient quality. At completion, the public will have access to data for over 200 fruit metabolites and expression data for approximately 10,000 genes assayed across 75 tomato lines. This research has broad implications for flavor and nutrition in the human diet. Identification of genes controlling flavor and nutrient quality will positively impact traditional breeding and biotechnology programs with direct end user impact. The program will provide training for students and postdoctoral associates in a broad range of genetic, genomic, bioinformatic and biochemical techniques. There is a strong emphasis on training opportunities for collaborators at predominantly minority institutions. While this program addresses important attributes of a major agricultural crop, the findings will be directly applicable to many other important crops grown in the US and worldwide.