RESEARCH-PGR: A Systems Biology Approach to Enable Cotton Fiber Engineering

从种皮表面出现的高度极化的棉纤维细胞是数十亿美元的国际产业的基础。由于纤维直径、长度和强度等重要性状是由单个细胞的生长决定的，因此了解这些性状是如何决定的以产生更高价值的作物是很重要的。棉花纤维在发育中的子房中的种子上生长数周，成熟后，棉铃打开，露出干燥的一英寸长的纤维，准备收获。外部纤维单元壁限定纤维的形状和材料性质。目前，由于缺乏对控制细胞生长速率、持续时间和模式的主要控制因素的了解，对纤维性状的预测和控制能力受到限制。该项目的目标是建立一个知识库，使科学家能够开发增强棉花纤维性状的新策略。使用多学科的方法，该项目将提供详细的基因表达模式，蛋白质复合物和细胞壁功能，程序棉花纤维性状的发育分析。预计这项研究将揭示控制发育转变的基因调控网络以及直接影响细胞生长的蛋白质复合物和细胞壁特征。该项目将有助于培养下一代生物学家，并将帮助高中教师创建学习模块，可用于让学生以教育，有趣和有趣的方式接触植物生物学。生物学的一个重大挑战是理解基因型和表型之间的联系。 该项目将采用创新的系统生物学和生物力学建模方法，以获得对重要棉花纤维性状控制的机理见解。这种全球纺织经济完全基于从发育中的种皮中出现的单个纤维细胞的生长和形态发生。在我们对细胞形态发生的理解中，许多进展揭示了细胞骨架和细胞壁系统协调以指定生长模式的基本机制。因此，有可能确定基因型和表型之间的关系，并对纤维细胞和特定性状进行遗传编程。该项目的长期目标是生成纤维生长控制的知识库和计算模型，这将广泛地使具有改进性状的纤维的遗传编程能够使用系统生物学方法，该方法锚定到棉花纤维发育的可再生发育时间轴。通过使用发育时间和关键形态转变作为数据集之间的统一变量，将有可能将mRNA、蛋白质、蛋白质复合物和细胞壁组成的动态与决定细胞最终长度和形态的纤维表型相关联。所有数据集将通过出版物和长期存储库的访问公开提供。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The highly polarized cotton fiber cell that emerges from the seed coat surface is the foundation of a multi-billion-dollar international industry. Because important traits such as fiber diameter, length, and strength are defined by the growth of individual cells, it is important to understand how these traits are determined in order to generate higher value crops. Cotton fibers grow for weeks on seeds in the developing ovary, and upon maturity, the cotton boll opens to reveal dried inch-long fibers ready for harvest. The outer fiber cell wall defines the shape and material properties of the fibers. At present the ability to predict and control fiber traits is limited by the lack of understanding regarding the primary controls governing the rate, duration, and patterns of cell growth. The goal of this project is to build a knowledge base that will enable scientists to develop new strategies for enhanced cotton fiber traits. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, the project will provide detailed developmental analyses of the gene expression patterns, protein complexes, and cell wall features that program cotton fiber traits. It is expected that this study will reveal gene regulatory networks that control developmental transitions and the protein complexes and cell wall features that directly affect cell growth. The project will help train the next generation of biologists and will help high school teachers create learning modules that can be used to expose students to plant biology in a way that is educational, fun, and interesting. A grand challenge in biology is to understand the connections between genotype and phenotype. This project will take an innovative systems biology and biomechanical modeling approach to gain mechanistic insight into the control of important cotton fiber traits. This global textile economy is based solely on the growth and morphogenesis of individual fiber cells that emerge from the developing seed coat. Numerous advances in our understanding of cell morphogenesis are revealing the basic mechanisms by which cytoskeletal and cell wall systems are coordinated to specify growth patterns. Therefore, it is possible to define relationships between genotype and phenotype and genetically program fiber cells and specific traits. The long-term goal of this project is to generate a knowledge base and computational models of fiber growth control that will broadly enable the genetic programming of fibers with improved traits using a systems biology approach that is anchored to the reproducible developmental timeline of cotton fiber development. By using developmental time and key morphological transitions as a unifying variable among the datasets, it will be possible to associate the dynamics of mRNA, proteins, protein complexes, and cell wall composition with fiber phenotypes that determine the final length and morphology of the cell. All datasets will be publicly available through publications and access at long-term repositories.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.