18-BTT: Advancing hybrid wheat production through the use of novel pathways for male sterility

该提案的总体目标是开发新的遗传途径来诱导六倍体（面包）小麦的雄性不育，作为促进杂交小麦生产方法的途径。该方法基于对水稻和玉米研究的初步数据，这些研究已经确定了在受到干扰时产生环境不育表型的途径，即对光周期或温度敏感的途径。该项目将针对几个途径，其中几个靶点位于生物发生途径中，这些途径产生大量的小RNA（长度为21- 24-nt）。这两类生殖阶段的次级RNA（称为“phasiRNA”）在细胞命运设定的关键阶段和草花药发育中的减数分裂期间产生。在水稻和玉米中，它们的生物发生或编码位点的破坏导致条件性雄性不育。该提案利用这些观察结果来靶向和破坏小麦中的这些phasiRNA，并评估这种破坏对雄性不育的后果。该项目将通过靶向至少一种已知产生类似表型的其他途径来补充这一途径的工作。PI的专业知识涵盖小RNA、植物基因组学和靶向诱变、生物信息学、小麦遗传学、细胞遗传学和减数分裂研究。这项提议是有风险的，但有初步数据表明，所有目标都是可以实现的。这一领域的成功可以使小麦产量增加至少10%，甚至更多，仅在欧盟和美国就可以增加约2000万吨小麦，而这些小麦的种植投入和足迹相同。

The overarching aim of this proposal is to develop novel genetic pathways to induce male sterility in hexaploid (bread) wheat as a route to facilitate production methods for hybrid wheat. The approach is based on preliminary data from studies on rice and maize that have identified pathways which, when perturbed, yield environmentally sterile phenotypes, i.e responsive to photoperiod or temperature. The project will target several pathways, with several targets in the biogenesis pathways that generate abundant small RNAs (21- to 24-nt in length). These two classes of reproductive phased, secondary RNAs (known as 'phasiRNAs') are generated at the critical stages of cell fate setting and during meiosis in grass anther development. Disruption of their biogenesis or encoding loci in both rice and maize leads to conditional male sterility. The proposal exploits these observations to target and disrupt these phasiRNAs in wheat and assess the consequences of this disruption on male sterility. The project will complement work on this pathway by targeting at least one other pathway known to generate a similar phenotype. The PIs' expertise covers small RNAs, plant genomics and targeted mutagenesis, bioinformatics, wheat genetics, cytogenetics and meiotic studies. The proposal is risky but there is preliminary data to suggest all aims are achievable. Success in this area could increase wheat yields by at least 10%, potentially more, representing an extra ~20 million metric tons of wheat in just the EU and US alone, grown with the same inputs and footprint.