GEPR: Flower and Fruit Development in Diploid Strawberry

草莓果实生产对美国农民具有重要的经济价值。能够增加草莓果实的大小和数量，改善果实的颜色、形状和味道，增加营养和药用价值的知识将提高我国的经济竞争力。从拟南芥、水稻或玉米等现有参考植物的果实发育研究中获得的信息很难应用于草莓，因为草莓的花和果实具有独特的结构和复杂的化学通讯，在结实的子房（瘦果）和肉质茎（果实）之间。本项目将描述在花器官和果实发育过程中，在特定细胞类型和个体组织类型中发生的分子、激素和形态学事件。该项目将使用最现代的技术和二倍体草莓品种，Fragaria vesca，很容易在实验室中使用。利用这些资源和信息，利用最近完成的F. vesca基因组测序，将鉴定和表征瘦果成熟过程中起作用的基因和调节瘦果与果实之间信号/通信的基因。该项目将为瘦果和果实之间的信号和通信事件提供基本的分子和生理学见解。这些见解将使未来的农业操作能够控制种子成熟、果实生长和果实成熟，这是草莓繁殖成功和适应不断变化的环境的基础。更广泛的影响。该项目产生的资源包括代表生殖发育的36个阶段和组织特异性样本的下一代测序数据，大量草莓基因的注释，新草莓基因的发现，细胞，组织和阶段特异性信使rna的鉴定，以及监测激素水平和动态的有用工具。由于草莓属于蔷薇科，该科包含许多经济上重要的树木和木本多年生水果（桃子、苹果和覆盆子）和坚果，以及观赏和木本作物，该项目将有助于建立二倍体草莓作为研究其他草本多年生植物和其他蔷薇科物种的模型。除了社区资源外，该项目还将有助于了解生殖发育、激素串扰、器官-器官信号和组织-组织信号等基本问题。该项目还将为来自当地HBCU和两所州立大学的本科生提供跨学科培训机会，这是研究计划的一部分。一个生物信息学的暑期工作坊将提供给巴尔的摩市内城区的高中教师，以鼓励高中生的定量思维。两名博士后将遵循一项职业发展计划，鼓励独立思考、沟通和学生指导。

Strawberry fruit production has significant economic value for US farmers. Knowledge that can lead to an increase in strawberry fruit size and number, improvement in fruit color, shape, and taste, and to added nutritional and pharmaceutical value will enhance our nation's economic competitiveness. Information gained from studying fruit development in existing reference plants, such as Arabidopsis, rice or maize, is difficult to apply to strawberry because strawberry flowers and fruits have unique structures and complex chemical communications between the seed-bearing ovary called the achene and the fleshy stem, the fruit. This project will describe molecular, hormonal, and morphological events, in specific cell types and individual tissue types, during floral organ and fruit development. The project will use the most modern technology and a diploid strawberry species, Fragaria vesca that is easily worked with in the laboratory. With the resources and information thus generated, genes with roles in achene ripening and genes that regulate signaling/communications between achene and fruits will be identified and characterized, taking advantage of the recently completed genome sequencing of F. vesca. The project will provide fundamental molecular and physiological insights into the signaling and communication events between achenes and the fruit. Such insights will enable future agricultural manipulation to control seed maturation, fruit growth, and fruit ripening, which underlie strawberry's reproductive success and adaptation to the changing environment.Broader impacts. The resources generated by the project include next generation sequencing data for 36 stage and tissue specific samples representing reproductive development, annotations of a large number of strawberry genes, discovery of novel strawberry genes, identification of cell-, tissue-, and stage-specific messenger RNAs, and useful tools for monitoring hormone levels and dynamics. Because Strawberry belongs to the Rosaceae family, which contains many economically important tree and woody perennial fruits (peach, apple, and raspberry) and nuts, as well as ornamental and wood crops, the project will help establish the diploid strawberry as a model for studying other herbaceous perennials as well as other Rosaceae species. In addition to community resources, the project will contribute to the understanding of fundamental questions about reproductive development, hormonal cross-talk, organ-to-organ signaling, and tissue-to-tissue signaling. The project will also provide interdisciplinary training opportunities that are integral to the research plan to undergraduate students from a local HBCU and two state universities. A bioinformatics summer workshop will be offered to high school teachers from inner city Baltimore to encourage quantitative thinking in high school students. Two postdoctoral fellows will follow a career development plan that encourages independent thinking, communications, and student mentoring.