Genome-wide association mapping and landscape scale modelling of heritable ionomic diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana populations

这项拟议的研究利用遗传方法来识别控制植物吸收化肥中的矿物质营养的基因，如钾和磷，以及潜在的有毒物质，如钠(对植物)，以及砷和镉(对吃植物的人类)。通过了解我们发现的不同形式的基因是如何被植物利用来使它们在含有不同水平的矿物质营养或潜在有毒元素的土壤中生长，我们就可以理解这些基因在允许植物适应它们在自然栖息地中暴露的不同土壤条件方面所起的作用。更好地了解植物自然种群的这些适应将对农业产生重大的实际好处，因为它提供了开发新作物品种所需的信息，能够更好地提供增加产量所需的产量，以满足未来对更多用于生物燃料的谷物、更多用于肉类的谷物以及更多粮食的需求，预计到2050年，将增加20亿人口。应对这些即将到来的挑战所需的作物产量的增加将需要灌溉农业产量的大幅增加，这将带来土壤中盐分的增加(钠的升高)和相关的产量损失。因此，适应在盐度不断增加的情况下保持产量的作物将是至关重要的。作物更有效地使用矿物营养肥还将提高农民的产量，提高贫瘠土壤上作物的生产力，并限制化肥生产和过度使用造成的环境和生态破坏。对于世界上大多数人来说，植物也是钙、钾、锰、铁和锌等膳食必需矿物质营养素的主要来源，因此，努力改善大米、玉米和木薯等主食的矿物质营养素含量将对人类健康产生重大影响。植物也是各种有毒矿物质进入食物链的主要入口点，如砷和镉。更好地了解自然植物种群是如何经过数千年的进化，在矿物质营养贫瘠的土壤或盐分、镉或砷含量升高的土壤中生长的，将有助于指导我们如何为未来开发能够带来必要的产量和质量提高的作物品种，同时确保这些收益不受气候变化的影响，以确保所有人的粮食安全。

The proposed research utilizes genetic approaches to identify the genes that control the way plants take up mineral nutrient found in fertilizers such as potassium and phosphorus and potential toxic substances such as sodium (for the plant), and arsenic and cadmium (for humans that eat the plants). By understanding how different forms of the genes we discover are used by plants to allow them to grow in soils containing different levels of mineral nutrients or potentially toxic elements we can understand the role these genes play in allowing plants to adapt to the varied soil conditions they are exposed to in their natural habitats. A better understanding of these adaptations in natural populations of plants would have significant practical benefits for agriculture by providing the information needed for the development of new varieties of crops better able to provide the increased yields needed to meet the future demand for more cereals for biofuels, more grain for meat, and more food for the additional 2 billion people expected by 2050. The increased crop yields needed to meet these coming challenges will require a significant increase in irrigated agricultural production which will bring with it increased salinity (elevated sodium) in soils and associated yield losses. Crops adapted to maintain yields in the face of increasing salinity will therefore be essential. More efficient use of mineral nutrient fertilizers by crops would also improve yields for farmers, enhance productivity of crops on poor soils, and limit the environmental and ecological damage the production and excess use of fertilizers causes. For most of the world's population, plants are also the major source of essential dietary mineral nutrients such as calcium, potassium, manganese, iron and zinc, and therefore efforts to improve the mineral nutrient content of staple foods such as rice, maize and cassava would have significant human health impacts. Plants are also the primary entry point for a variety of toxic minerals into the food chain such as arsenic and cadmium. A better understanding of how natural plant populations have evolved over thousands of years to grow in mineral nutrient poor soils or soils with elevated salinity, cadmium or arsenic would help guide how we develop crop varieties for the future that could deliver the needed increases in yield and quality while insuring these gains against a changing climate to ensure food security for all.