Joint NSF/ERA-CAPS: EVOREPRO - Evolution of Plant Reproductive Processes

PIS：Mark A.Johnson(布朗大学)ERA-CAPS合作者：Jörg Becker(葡萄牙欧伊拉斯Gulbenkian de ciència研究所)、Frederic Berger(奥地利维也纳Gregor Mendel研究所)、Thomas Dresselhaus和Stefan ie Sprunck(德国雷根斯堡大学)、David Twell(英国莱斯特大学)、Marek Mutwil(德国波茨坦Max Plank分子植物生理学研究所)和Jose Gutierrez-Marcos(英国华威大学)。未来几年提高作物产量的能力将取决于对生殖机制的更好理解。该项目的目标是利用在模式植物物种(拟南芥)中调节受精的分子的已知知识，并使用比较基因组学方法在包括玉米、水稻和番茄在内的七种植物中扩展这一知识。这些预期的发现将有助于确定作物有性繁殖过程中环境胁迫所针对的具体机制，并将有助于选择抗逆品种。该项目的成果将提供对经济重要植物物种有性繁殖进化的更深入的了解。此外，该项目将在关键作物植物(番茄)的背景下，为包括一名博士后研究员和一名本科生研究人员在内的不同研究团队提供生物成像、遗传学和基因组学方面的尖端培训。重要的是，这个研究团队将受益于这一由来自五个国家的八个实验室组成的大型、多学科的国际努力。过去五年的研究为拟南芥的配子生理和受精机制提供了巨大的新见解。这一进展确立了配子是高度分化的细胞类型，具有高度特异的转录特征的观点。基于荧光报告和活细胞成像的显微技术的进步也改变了研究能力，并为研究配子传递、相互作用和种子发育激活的机制提供了见解。然而，对以开花植物为特征的双重受精的复杂性的了解还远远不完整，对双重受精之前的机制的起源缺乏任何知识。在这个项目中，代表植物进化关键阶段的新兴模型将被用来深入了解配子分化和受精的祖先机制。基因协同功能网络将从几种植物的表达图谱中得到鉴定，这些植物包括地钱草、苔藓和现存的基生开花植物Amborella。这些将与拟南芥和重要的经济作物玉米、番茄和水稻的协同功能网络相辅相成，用于研究开花植物中调控雄配子发生、花粉管生长和受精机制的基因协同功能网络的保守性。此外，这些研究将为作物的肥力提供新的分子标记。预计该项目将有助于确定在单子叶植物(草)和真双子叶植物进化过程中丢失的古代被子植物的受精因子，以及被子植物谱系中从头进化的受精因子。所有产生的数据将在联合体内自由和持续地共享。具体而言，RNAseq数据集将可通过联合体数据库以及公开可用的数据储存库进行访问。

PI: Mark A. Johnson (Brown University)ERA-CAPS Collaborators: Jörg Becker (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal), Frederic Berger (Gregor Mendel Institute, Vienna, Austria), Thomas Dresselhaus and Stefanie Sprunck (University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany), David Twell (University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom), Marek Mutwil (Max Plank Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany), and Jose Gutierrez-Marcos (University of Warwick, Warwick, United Kingdom)The key agricultural products derived from corn, rice, wheat, and tomato all require successful reproduction by fertilization. The ability to increase crop production in the coming years will depend on developing a better understanding of reproductive mechanisms. The goal of this project is to take what has been learned about the molecules that mediate fertilization in a model plant species (Arabidopsis) and extend this knowledge using a comparative genomic approach in seven plant species including corn, rice, and tomato. The expected findings will allow for the identification of specific mechanisms that are targeted by environmental stresses during sexual reproduction in crops and will assist in the selection of stress-resistant cultivars. The outputs of this project will provide a deeper understanding of the evolution of sexual reproduction of economically important plant species. In addition this project will provide cutting edge training in biological imaging, genetics and genomics in the context of a critical crop plant (tomato) for a diverse team of researchers that will include a post-doctoral fellow and an undergraduate researcher. Importantly, this research team will be benefit from participation in this large, multidisciplinary and international effort comprising eight laboratories from five nations.Research during the past five years has delivered tremendous new insights into gamete physiology and the mechanisms involved in fertilization in Arabidopsis. This progress has established the view that gametes are hyper-differentiated cell types with highly specific transcriptional profiles. Advances in microscopy based on fluorescent reporters and live cell imaging have also transformed research capability and provided insights into the mechanisms involved in gamete delivery, interaction and activation of seed development. Yet, the understanding of the complexity of double fertilization that characterizes flowering plants is far from complete and lacks any knowledge about the origin of mechanisms that predate double fertilization. In this project, emerging models representing key stages in plant evolution will be used to provide insight into the ancestral mechanisms of gamete differentiation and fertilization. Gene co-function networks will be identified from expression atlases for several plant species that include the liverwort Marchantia, the moss Physcomitrella and the extant basal flowering plant Amborella. These will be complemented with co-function networks from Arabidopsis and the economically important crops maize, tomato and rice and used to study the conservation of gene co-function networks governing male and female gametogenesis, pollen tube growth and fertilization mechanisms in flowering plants. Moreover, these investigations will provide novel molecular markers of fertility in crops. It is expected that this project will result in identification of fertilization factors that were lost from ancient angiosperms during the evolution of monocots (grasses) and eudicots and those which have evolved de novo in the angiosperm lineage. All data produced will be freely and continuously shared within the consortium. Specifically, RNAseq datasets will be accessible through a consortium database as well as through publicly available data repositories.