PFI:BIC An Innovation Partnership to Advance a High-throughput Plant Phenotype Screening Platform

爱荷华州立大学（ISU）的创新伙伴关系项目将通过筛选平台加速对植物科学和育种的基础理解，大大减少选择和开发新的优质植物品种的时间和成本。当前的目标是建立和重新设计一个有前途的近红外（NIR）种子筛选平台，以提高其性能和准确性，并扩大其应用范围。设想的平台基于两个互补的组成部分：a)近红外分子光谱和化学计量学集成了种子和其他植物材料的自动化、非破坏性高通量筛选；b)基于生化表型筛选现有植物群体的定制开发应用方法。本项目旨在通过建立类似的高通量技术来分析植物的生化表型，以满足高通量DNA测序和植物基因组分析成功所带来的挑战。这种能力将提高植物科学家和植物育种家利用基因组学开发改良新品种的能力，以适应21世纪预计的全球人口爆炸。提出的表型筛选平台将对食品、饲料和生物能源生产系统产生重大影响，因为植物科学家和育种者将首次获得一种独特的研究工具，该工具将以低成本同时非破坏性地评估基于生化表型的多种植物性状。这项研究的广泛影响是社会、经济和学习相关的。在社会层面上，植物对经济、就业、健康、燃料、气候变化/碳封存、粮食安全、世界和平、环境和我们的整体福祉有着显著的、多方面的影响。更好地了解植物生物学、改进现有品种和开发新品种都是关键的研究领域，生物化学表型筛选将为快速变化的地球实现可持续和培育生态系统提供宝贵的数据。在经济层面，这些改进将极大地增强筛选平台的通用性，扩大用户群，并使更多的公共和商业植物科学家和育种家能够获得更低成本的筛选。在学习层面，KEP参与者将相互学习。该项目将成为爱荷华州立大学师生和小企业了解如何将彼此的能力整合起来，使技术解决方案能够应对现实世界的挑战的工具。该项目的合作伙伴包括Brownseed Genetics （Bay City， WI）、Genetic Enterprises International （Johnston， IA）、Kemin Industries （Des Moines， IA）、MTEC BioAnalytics （Ames， IA）、Schillinger Genetics （West Des Moines， IA）和Sustainable Oils （Bozeman， MT）。国际滑联的五名研究人员和这六家小企业将在一个知识增强伙伴关系（KEP）中合作。MTEC BioAnalytics将为该项目带来近红外种子筛选技术专业知识，而其他公司则拥有种子和其他植物基产品的专业知识。MTEC BioAnalytics将提供关键的高通量筛选平台组件（例如，超高速光纤开关）、工程设计，其他将提供专有和独特的特征种子集合的使用，这些种子可以表达理想的生化表型变异。

This Partnerships for Innovation project from Iowa State University (ISU) will accelerate fundamental understanding in plant science and breeding with a screening platform that significantly reduces the time and costs for selecting and developing new elite plant varieties. The immediate goal is to build upon and re-engineer a promising near infrared (NIR)-based seed-screening platform to increase its performance and accuracy and broaden its applications. The envisioned platform is based on two complementary components: a) NIR molecular spectroscopy and chemometrics integrated with automated, nondestructive high-throughput screening of seeds and other plant materials, and b) customized development of application methodologies that screen extant plant populations based on biochemical phenotypes. This project seeks to meet the challenge presented by the success of high-throughput DNA sequencing and analysis of plant genomes, by establishing analogous high-throughput technologies to analyze a plant's biochemical phenotype. This capability will enhance the ability of plant scientists and plant breeders to utilize genomics and develop improved new cultivars needed to accommodate the global population explosion anticipated in the 21st century. The proposed phenotype-screening platform will have a significant impact on food, feed, and bio-energy production systems because, for the first time, plant scientists and breeders will have access to a unique research tool that will routinely assess, at low cost, multiple plant traits simultaneously and non-destructively based upon biochemical phenotypes. The broader impacts of this research are societal, economic, and learning related. At the societal level, plants have a remarkable, multi-faceted impact on economies, jobs, health, fuel, climate change/carbon sequestration, food security, world peace, the environment, and our overall well being. Better understanding of plant biology, improving existing varieties, and developing new ones are all key research areas where biochemical phenotype screening will produce invaluable data for achieving sustainable and nurturing ecosystems for a rapidly changing planet. At the economic level, these improvements will greatly enhance the versatility of the screening platform, expand the user base, and make lower cost screening accessible to more public and commercial plant scientists and breeders. At the learning level, the KEP participants will learn from each other. The project will be a vehicle for Iowa State University faculty and students and small businesses to understand how each other's abilities can be integrated to enable technological solutions to real world-challenges.Partners at the inception of the project are Brownseed Genetics (Bay City, WI), Genetic Enterprises International (Johnston, IA), Kemin Industries (Des Moines, IA), MTEC BioAnalytics (Ames, IA), Schillinger Genetics (West Des Moines, IA), and Sustainable Oils (Bozeman, MT). Five ISU researchers and these six small businesses will collaborate in a Knowledge Enhancing Partnership (KEP). MTEC BioAnalytics will bring NIR seed screening technology expertise to the project while the other companies have expertise in seed and other plant based products. MTEC BioAnalytics will provide key highthroughput screening platform components (e.g., ultra fast fiber optic switch), engineering design, and the others will provide the use of proprietary and unique collections of characterized seeds that express variation in desirable biochemical phenotypes.