Joint NSF/ERA-CAPS: RegulaTomE - Regulating Tomato Quality through Expression

主要研究者：哈利·克利（佛罗里达大学盖恩斯维尔分校）CoPI：James J. Giovannoni和Zhangjun Fei（USDA-ARS/博伊斯汤普森植物研究所）ERA-CAPS合作者：凯茜·马丁（John Innes Centre，Norwich，United Kingdom），Alisdair费尔尼（马克斯·普朗克分子植物生理学研究所，戈尔姆，德国），Bjoern Usadel（亚琛大学，亚琛，德国）和达尼·扎米尔（耶路撒冷希伯来大学，以色列雷霍伊勒）生产者面临着生产更多、更便宜的食品的压力，同时减少投入和对环境的影响。消费者需要并且想要比今天典型的注重数量而不是质量的生产系统生产的更健康，更美味的食品。该项目的重点是番茄，这是全世界经济上最重要的水果/蔬菜作物。该项目的总体目标是阐明控制植物对干旱等环境胁迫反应的遗传机制，并了解环境如何影响番茄风味和营养品质的内源化学。这项研究将为番茄和其他作物的农艺和质量改进提供机械知识和有形工具。具体而言，将确定允许对非生物胁迫作出更强有力反应并对风味和营养质量产生积极影响的基因的天然版本，并将其传播给公共和私人育种者，以便为他们的选择过程提供信息。这些资源的有效性和获得的知识的重要性将确保该项目通过利用目前尚未开发的野生番茄品种中的遗传信息，直接促进粮食安全和可持续水果种植。在外联和培训方面，该项目将为大西洋两岸的本科生和研究生以及博士后科学家提供独特的交叉培训机会。此外，该项目还将为来自福特瓦利州立大学、加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校和加州州立大学萨克拉门托分校的本科生提供基因组学和生物信息学方面的暑期研究实习机会，这些学校都是少数族裔服务机构。 该项目的双重目标是确定转录调控的重要性，在番茄品质性状的代谢途径，并确定这样的转录调节分子水平。所选的品质性状包括那些决定影响货架期和营养价值的抗氧化能力的性状以及那些决定水果风味的性状。还将确定有助于非生物胁迫耐受性的基因座，以开发更有营养和可持续的作物。野生种与番茄杂交产生的渐渗系（IL）中可用的自然变异将用于评估转录调控的重要性，鉴定调控基因并评估表观遗传变异。为了实现这些目标，包括S.将开发并免费提供IL果实的番茄内酯和代谢物、DNA甲基化和转录组图谱。这些成果包括调节基因的鉴定和果实品质代谢工程的新工具。这一美国-欧盟合作项目将允许在国家一级无法获得的规模上开发工具和资源。所产生的所有数据将在联合体内自由和持续地共享。具体而言，基于序列的数据集将通过联盟数据库以及通过公开可用的数据库（包括GenBank、欧洲生物信息学研究所（EBI）和SOL基因组学网络（SGN））访问。

PI: Harry J. Klee (University of Florida-Gainesville) CoPIs: James J. Giovannoni and Zhangjun Fei (USDA-ARS/ Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research)ERA-CAPS Collaborators: Cathie Martin (John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom), Alisdair Fernie (Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, Golm, Germany), Bjoern Usadel (Aachen University, Aachen, Germany), and Dani Zamir (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel) Producers are under pressure to produce more, cheaper food with reduced inputs and impact on the environment. Consumers need and want healthier, better tasting foods than those produced by today's typical production systems focused on quantity rather than quality. This project focuses on tomato, the most economically important fruit/vegetable crop worldwide. The overall goal of this project is to elucidate the genetic mechanisms controlling plant responses to environmental stresses such as drought and to understand how the environment influences the endogenous chemistry of flavor and nutritional qualities in tomato. This research will deliver mechanistic knowledge as well as tangible tools for agronomic and quality improvement of tomato and other crops. Specifically, naturally occurring versions of genes permitting more robust responses to abiotic stress and positively impacting flavor and nutritional quality will be identified and disseminated to public and private breeders so as to inform their selection processes. The effectiveness of these resources and the significance of the knowledge acquired will ensure that the project contributes directly to food security and sustainable fruit cultivation through use of currently untapped genetic information residing in underutilized wild tomato varieties. With regard to outreach and training, the project will provide unique cross-training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral scientists on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition, the project will provide summer research internships in genomics and bioinformatics for undergraduate students from Fort Valley State, California State University, Fresno and California State University, Sacramento, all minority serving institutions. The twin objectives of this project are to determine the importance of transcriptional regulation of the metabolic pathways defining quality traits in tomato and to identify such transcriptional regulators at the molecular level. The selected quality traits include those determining antioxidant capacity that impacts shelf life and nutritional value as well as those determining fruit flavor. Loci contributing to abiotic stress tolerance will also be identified with the goal of developing more nutritious and sustainable crops. Natural variation available in introgression lines (ILs) resulting from wild species crosses to tomato will be used to assess the importance of transcriptional regulation, identify regulatory genes and assess epigenetic variation. To accomplish these ends, resources that include a genome reference sequence for S. lycopersicoides and metabolite, DNA methylation and transcriptome profiles of IL fruit will be developed and made freely available. Deliverables include regulatory gene identification and new tools for metabolic engineering of fruit quality. This collaborative US-EU project will allow development of tools and resources on a scale unavailable at a national level. All data produced will be freely and continuously shared within the consortium. Specifically, sequence based datasets will be accessible through a consortium database as well as through publicly available data repositories including GenBank, European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and the SOL Genomics Network (SGN).