BREAD ABRDC: Advanced Technologies to Get Improved Yams in Farmers Hands

在发展中国家，特别是非洲和整个热带地区的农民，番薯（或山药）是一种重要的经济作物。经济地种植山药的一个关键需求是开发低成本的植物生长系统，该系统允许生产和育种无疾病、抗应激和高产的山药作物。对股东农民来说，养殖成本必须最低，以确保粮食安全。该研究项目正在开发低成本的方法来生产无病山药块茎，这是地下可食用的茎，也可以作为继续繁殖的起始材料。该项目正在开发一种高效和改进的生物反应器，或容器，这将使“启动器”山药从非种子组织，如叶，茎或花增殖。通过在生物反应器中操纵激素和营养，该项目将开发廉价的方法来繁殖无病和抗应激的山药品种。该项目与尼日利亚的伊巴丹大学和肯尼亚的国际热带农业研究所合作，通过改进生物反应器技术降低股东农民的成本。在此过程中，本科生将接受先进育种方法的培训和教育。基于网络的资源和多媒体工作将有助于教育公众、其他研究人员和农民。该项目包括非洲研究人员的直接参与和与小农的直接教育计划。临时浸没生物反应器（TIB）系统将利用开源和廉价的技术开发，以尽可能低的成本生产植物，其形式可以转化为相对低技术的实施环境。特别关注山药品种提供了一个目标植物品种，对尼日利亚等国家具有重要的经济影响，在这些国家，山药是小农的重要粮食来源和经济作物。由于山药的组织培养方法开发得最少，这项工作将包括其他植物物种，如香蕉和木薯，这些植物物种具有有效的再生系统，同时进一步开发山药的组织培养方法。TIB系统的最新进展已经证明了廉价控制液相和气相组成的能力。因此，利用这种控制来提高植物的生产率是研究的重点。 基因组学和生物信息学使得快速鉴定胚胎发生蛋白成为可能。这些蛋白质将通过在细菌中表达而产生，然后测试其改善山药和更普遍的植物中胚胎发生的能力。将生成一个网络资源，以促进合作，确定人员，方法和文献，并提供一个论坛，通过视频，说明等传播研究结果。该项目将在非洲举办一个研讨会，以吸引和教育山药利益相关者，重点是向农民和其他人提供教育，以利用已开发的开放技术。

Dioscorea (or yam) is a vital cash crop in the developing world and particularly for farmers in Africa and throughout the tropics. A critical need for growing yam economically is to develop low-cost plant growth systems that permit production and breeding of yam crops that are free from disease, resistant to stress and highly productive. Costs of breeding must be minimal for shareholder farmers to ensure food security. This research project is developing the low-cost methods to generate disease-free yam tubers, which are the underground edible stems that can also serve as starting material for continued propagation. The project is developing an efficient and improved bioreactor, or vessel, that will enable proliferation of "starter" yams from non-seed tissue, such as leaves, stems or flowers. By hormonal and nutrient manipulation in the bioreactor, the project will develop inexpensive methods to propagate disease-free and stress-resistant strains of yams. The project collaborates with the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Kenya to reduce costs for shareholder farmers by improving bioreactor technology. In the process, undergraduate students will be trained and educated in advanced breeding methods. Web-based resources and multimedia efforts will help educate the public, other researchers and farmers. The project includes direct involvement of researchers in Africa and direct educational programs with smallholder farmers. Temporary immersion bioreactor (TIB) systems will be developed utilizing open-source and inexpensive technology to generate plants as inexpensively as possible in a format that can be translated into relatively low-technology implementation environments. The specific focus on Dioscorea (yam) species provides a target plant species that has important economic impact on countries such as Nigeria where it is an important food source and cash crop to smallholder farmers. Since tissue culture methods of yam are minimally developed, the work will include other plant species such as Musa (banana) and cassava, which have efficient regeneration systems in place, while further developing tissue culture methods for yam. Recent advances in TIB systems have demonstrated the ability to inexpensively control the composition of the liquid as well as the gas phase. Therefore, a focus of the research is to utilize this control to improve the rates of plant production. Genomics and bioinformatics have made it possible to quickly identify embryogenic proteins. These proteins will be produced by expression in bacteria, and then tested for ability to improve embryogenesis in yam and more generally in plants. A web resource will be generated to facilitate collaboration that identifies people, methods and literature as well as provide a forum for disseminating the results of the research through videos, instructions, etc. The project will culminate with a workshop held in Africa to engage and educate yam stakeholders with a focus on providing education to farmers and others to take advantage of the open technology that has been developed.