An Historical Study of Mendelian Genetics and Virus Disease Resistance Genes

这个植物生物学历史上的研究项目将揭示20世纪生物学家开发抵抗病毒感染的植物的一些尝试。它还将探索实验室基础研究与农业领域中有价值的实际应用之间的重要联系。这项研究的重点将是洛克菲勒医学研究所的科学家弗朗西斯·O·霍姆斯，他开发了一种以烟草花叶病毒为中心的有影响力的植物抗性范例。20世纪30年代，霍姆斯提出了新的想法，即什么是对植物病毒的遗传抗性，以及如何在科学家手中控制它。他将这项工作付诸实践，培育出对烟草花叶病毒具有遗传抗性的作物。从他广泛的实验室和温室实验中，他提出了一个假设，即野生植物和病毒在不同的地理位置共同进化。研究人员将确定这些想法的发展和应用，这些想法今天仍然被植物育种者用来改良栽培品种。这些发现将被整合到本科和研究生课程中，这些课程探索新出现的疾病、病毒学、病毒/植物共同进化和生态学以及更广泛的食品安全问题。研究结果将通过出版物、课堂和公开讲座、本科生和研究生培训以及与植物学家和科学史学家的交流来传播，以架起跨学科的桥梁。本研究的重点是寄主共同进化理论的发展：植物病理学中的病原体多样性，特别关注烟草花叶病毒(TMV)的知识生产，TMV是科学和历史研究的有趣对象，以及弗朗西斯·霍姆斯的实验和理论工作。当霍姆斯在1951年写下这篇共同进化论文时，它具有惊人的创新性；它通过展示植物基因组的可塑性和环境在宿主：病原体相互作用中的作用，将孟德尔遗传学以及植物进化生物学、病毒学、流行病学和生态学的当代发现结合在一起。这项研究将展示霍姆斯如何开发实用的工具和专业知识来验证他的假设，即烟草的物种间杂交可以用来培育抗TMV的植物。它还将展示他的实验是如何为他的假设提供依据的，即TMV寄主植物的地理中心也将提供丰富的抗性基因。最后，它将使用亲身实践的方法，了解霍姆斯如何跨越边界从实验室贩运到田间，以识别和部署对病毒感染的抗性基因；重点将放在辣椒(辣椒和塔巴斯科)上，这导致了许多植物品种至今仍在使用。

General Audience Summary This research project in history of plant biology will bring to light some of the attempts by 20th century biologists to develop plants that are resistant to virus infection. It will also explore important connections between basic research in the lab and practical applications valued in agricultural contexts. The focus of the research will be Francis O. Holmes, a scientist at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, who developed an influential paradigm for plant resistance centered on the tobacco mosaic virus. In the 1930s Holmes developed new ideas about what genetic resistance to plant viruses was and how it could be controlled in the hands of scientists. He put this work into practice by producing crop plants with genetic resistance to the tobacco mosaic virus. From his extensive laboratory and greenhouse experiments, he developed a hypothesis that wild plants and viruses co-evolved in discrete geographical locations. The investigator will determine the development and application of these ideas that continue to be used today by plant breeders to improve cultivated varieties. The findings will be integrated into undergraduate and graduate courses that explore the topics of emerging diseases, virology, virus/plant co-evolution and ecology, and broader issues of food safety. The results will be disseminated through publications, classroom and public lectures, undergraduate and graduate student training, and communication with plant scientists and historians of science, to bridge interdisciplinary boundaries.Technical Summary The focus of this research is on the development of the theory of co-evolution of host:pathogen diversity in plant pathology, with a particular concentration on knowledge production derived from tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an intriguing object of scientific and historical study, and the experimental and theoretical work of Francis Holmes. When Holmes wrote this co-evolutionary thesis in 1951, it was strikingly innovative; it brought together Mendelian genetics as well as contemporary findings of plant evolutionary biology, virology, epidemiology, and ecology by demonstrating the plasticity of plant genomes and the role of the environment in host:pathogen interactions. This research will show how Holmes developed the practical tools and expertise to test his hypothesis that inter-species hybrids of tobacco could be used to produce TMV-resistant plants. It will also show how his experiments informed his hypothesis that the geographical center for host plants of TMV would also provide a wealth of resistance genes. Finally, it will use a hands-on approach as to how Holmes trafficked across boundaries from the lab to the field to identify and deploy resistant genes to virus infections; the focus will be on Capsicum (pepper and Tabasco), which resulted in many plant cultivars that are still in use today.