Functional non-coding RNA genes conferring beneficial traits to Camelina

气候变化和环境污染将对全球粮食安全产生重大影响。温度升高导致并将继续导致更频繁的干旱事件，并因此导致田间可溶性化学物质（如盐）浓度的增加。此外，干旱的持续扩大将导致对土地的严重“过度利用”，导致土壤中氮等基本营养成分的枯竭。因此，审慎的做法是在植物育种计划和农业技术方面进行重大改进。功能基因组学、生物信息学和表型组学的强大结合是实现这一目标的关键。近年来，利用非编码rna作为农业性状改良的重要靶点已受到关注，因为它们在环境条件下调节与作物生长和产量生产力相关的基因。表型组学是对生物体动态特征（物理和生化特征或表型）的大规模研究。现代表型组学平台使用具有不同光谱特征的专用传感器，以非侵入方式高通量捕获随时间推移的细微表型变化，如生长速度、高度、冠层结构、叶片含水量、预萎蔫状态和蒸腾速率。通过这种方式，可以评估非编码RNA基因在不同（非生物）胁迫条件下的反应。由于其营养特性（高含量的omega-3和omega- 1脂肪酸和维生素E）以及生物燃料生产的潜在用途，亚麻荠是加拿大重要的经济作物。本项目拟采用基因组学和表型组学相结合的方法，在不同环境下筛选数百种不同胁迫条件下的非编码rna，鉴定亚麻荠对农业重要性状的应答基因。该研究不仅将提供一套最有前途的种质系，而且还将提供在不同胁迫条件下不同发育阶段的完整表型谱，作为培育适应气候变化植物的育种和生物工程项目的基本要素。

Climate change and environmental pollution will have a great impact on food security worldwide. The temperature increases cause, and will continue causing, more frequent drought events and, as such, an increasing concentrations of soluble chemicals (such as salt) in the field. In addition, the persistent expansion of aridity will carry a drastic "over use" of fields causing the depletion of essential nutritional components of the soil such as nitrogen. Therefore, it is prudent to respond by developing major improvements in plant breeding programs and agricultural technology. The power combination of functional genomics, bioinformatics and phenomics is key to achieve this objective. In recent years, the use of non-coding RNAs as**important targets for breeding agricultural trait-improvements have been spotlighted because of their role in environment conditions regulating genes related to the growth and yield productivity of crops. Phenomics is the large scale study of the dynamic characteristics (physical and biochemical traits or phenotype) of an organism. Modern phenomics platforms use specialize sensors with different spectral characteristics to capture subtle phenotypic changes over time at high-throughput in a non-invasive way such as growth rate, height, canopy structure, water content in leaves, pre-wilting condition, and transpiration rate. In such a way, the responses of non-coding RNA genes under different (abiotic) stress conditions can be evaluated. Camelina sativa is an important economical crop in Canada due to its nutritional properties (high content of omega-3 and omega-l fatty acids and vitamin E) as well as its potential use for biofuel production. In this project, we proposed to screen hundreds of non-coding RNAs under different stress conditions using a combined approach of genomics**and phenomics in different environments to identify Camelina sativa responsive genes to agricultural important traits. This study will not only provide a set of most promising germplasm lines but also a complete phenotypic profile at different development stages under diverse stress conditions as essential elements in breeding and bio-engineering programs to develop climate-change-resilient plants.