Mapping genetic and cellular interactions during growth of a simple plant system

全球农业是建立在少数几种作物品种上的，其中最早的是由新石器时代的农民驯化的。它们经过数千年的选择和育种，以产生具有更好农艺性状的植物形式。许多与作物驯化有关的基因变化已经被精确地定位到相对较少的基因上。这些植物品种现在每年生产数十亿吨的食物、材料和化学品。今天，植物工程正在发生根本性的变化。新的基因编辑技术使基因工程师能够重现古老的特征并将其转移到新物种中。我们面临的前景是能够系统地重新编程任何植物的生长和最终形态，并利用尚未驯化的植物物种的功能多样性。但是，虽然我们可以更容易地获得DNA代码，而这些代码必须用于重新编程植物系统，但遗传密码、调控网络、细胞和驱动植物生长和形成的新兴模式的物理过程之间的相互联系仍然不明确，生物工程师无法触及。该提案旨在利用一种独特的简单植物系统来应对更好地理解生长的挑战。我们将使用地钱多形芽作为一个模型系统的直接可视化的顶端生长和操纵的监管动态在不同的，相互作用的尺度的分子，细胞，组织和生物体。我们将使用激光显微镜分离相互作用的组分，以绘制细胞之间的功能性相互作用。此外，我们正在生成新的基因表达标记，并将使用这些标记来绘制基因活动和细胞相互作用之间的联系。

Global agriculture is founded on a few crop species, the earliest of which were domesticated by Neolithic farmers. They have been subject to selection and breeding for millennia, to produce plant forms with better agronomic traits. Many of the genetic changes associated with crop domestication have been mapped precisely, to relatively few genes. These plant varieties now produce billions of tonnes of food, materials and chemicals each year. Today, radical changes are underway for engineering of plants. New gene editing techniques have allowed genetic engineers to recapitulate ancient traits and transfer them to new species. We face the prospect of being able to systematically reprogram the growth and final form of any plant, and harness the functional diversity of plant species that have not been domesticated. But, while we have evermore-facile access to the DNA code that must be used to reprogram plant systems, the interconnections between genetic code, regulatory networks, cells and physical processes that drive emergent patterns of plant growth and form - remain ill-defined and out-of-reach for biological engineers. This proposal aims exploit a uniquely simple plant system to tackle the challenge of better understanding growth. We will use Marchantia polymorpha gemmae as a model system for direct visualisation of apical growth and manipulation of regulatory dynamics at different, interacting scales of molecules, cells, tissues and organism. We will separate interacting components using laser microscopy, in order to map functional imnteractions between cells. In addition, we are generating new markers for gene expression, and will use these to draw connections between gene activities and cell interactions.