BTT EAGER: Harnessing the power of cellular memory to enhance the breeding potential of crops

为确定作物改良的遗传变异和性状变异之间的因果关系，人们作出了重大努力。这些努力中缺失的是对表观遗传变异的追求，即在没有遗传变化的情况下产生稳定遗传的性状。近年来人们发现植物无性系繁殖可以诱导表观遗传变异，并在无性系再生植株中稳定遗传。该项目的目标是利用这种新开发的方法，将各种环境胁迫与传统的植物无性系繁殖技术相结合，生产出抗逆性增强的玉米植株。该项目是乔治亚大学Schmitz实验室和英国华威大学Gutierrez-Marcos实验室的联合合作项目，是由美国国家科学基金会和生物技术与生物科学研究委员会共同资助的“突破技术”竞赛的一部分。利用这种新颖的无性系植物繁殖策略揭示胁迫响应变异的能力可能会导致胁迫抗逆性玉米品种的快速改进。除了对农业的影响外，该项目还将资助实验生物学和计算生物学的研究生培训。研究生们将参加由佐治亚大学赞助的“年轻的狗”项目的高中暑期实习生的指导工作。这些学生将专注于生物计算机编程。此外，通过纳菲尔德基金会研究计划，华威大学将举办实验生物学实践研讨会，以激励学生和教师探索植物生物技术领域。该项目旨在创造对非生物和生物胁迫具有增强反应的玉米植物。为了实现这一目标，将采用一种新的方法，在不同的胁迫条件下克隆再生玉米植株，以诱导新的可遗传的表观遗传变异。转录组分析将通过对再生植株的转录组分析来评估胁迫诱导的表观遗传变异的功能意义。要使诱导的表观遗传变异具有相关性，它必须在几代之间保持稳定。因此，通过研究克隆再生植株的DNA甲基组和转录组来评估诱导表观遗传变异的稳定性。与此同时，将对再生植株及其后代进行表型表征，以确定是否存在对胁迫的增强反应。这些结果可能会导致新的方法来诱导新的但稳定的表观遗传变异，从而为玉米和其他作物物种的性状改良提供创新途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Significant efforts are dedicated to identifying causal links between genetic and trait variation for crop improvement. Missing from these efforts is the pursuit of epigenetic variation, whereby stably inherited traits arise in the absence of genetic changes. It was recently discovered that clonal propagation of plants can induce epigenetic variation that is stably inherited in clonally regenerated plants. The goal of this project is to use this newly developed approach that couples a variety of environmental stresses with traditional plant clonal propagation techniques to produce maize plants with enhanced stress resistance. This project is a joint collaboration between the Schmitz Laboratory at the University of Georgia and the Gutierrez-Marcos Laboratory at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and is supported as part of the Breakthrough Technologies competition, which is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The ability to uncover stress-responsive variation using this novel, clonal plant propagation strategy could lead to a rapid improvement of stress resilient maize varieties. In addition to the agricultural impact, this project will fund graduate student training in experimental and computational biology. The graduate students will participate in mentoring high-school summer intern students from the Young Dawgs program sponsored by the University of Georgia. These students will focus on biological computer programming. Additionally, hands-on workshops for experimental biology will be hosted at the University of Warwick through the Nuffield Foundation Research Program to inspire students and teachers to explore the area of plant biotechnology. This project aims to create Zea mays plants with enhanced responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. To accomplish this goal, a novel method to clonally regenerate maize plants in concert with different stress conditions to induce novel yet heritable epigenetic variation will be used. Transcriptome analyses will be performed to assess the functional significance of the stress-induced epigenetic variation a transcriptome analysis on regenerated plants. For the induced epigenetic variation to be relevant it must be stable over generations. Therefore, the stability of induced epigenetic variation by studying the DNA methylome and transcriptome of progeny plants derived from clonal regenerants will be assessed. In parallel, phenotypic characterization of the regenerant plants and their progeny in comparison to controls will be carried out to determine if enhanced responses to stress exist. These results will potentially lead to novel methodologies for inducing novel yet stable epigenetic variation, thus enabling innovative avenues for trait improvement in maize and possibly other crop species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.