This action funds an NSF National Plant Genome Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Jon Cody is "Developmental Regulator-Mediated Gene Editing: A Method to Improve Accessibility and Production of Transgenic Plants". The host institution for the fellowship is the University of Minnesota and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Daniel Voytas.
For the past 30 years, conventional genetic engineering methods have accelerated plant improvement through the expansion of available traits, leading to an increase in agricultural productivity and fueling the discovery of new biological mechanisms. This process, however, requires the use of tissue culture techniques to select and regenerate edited cells into whole transgenic plants, which can take 6 – 12 months in many crop species. The presented research focuses on optimization and translation of recent findings that demonstrate expression of developmental regulators and hormone biosynthetic genes can promote the production of de novo meristems in the absence of tissue culture in dicot plant species. If gene editing reagents are included, transgenic meristems are produced that transmit edits to the next generation. Establishment of streamlined methods for this process could broadly impact the field of genetic engineering by possibly increasing accessibility and efficiency of producing transgenic and gene edited dicot crop plants. During the course of this study the fellow will be trained in the disciplines of plant physiology, molecular biology, genetic engineering, genomics, phenomics and plant transformation. Broader impacts include the dissemination of findings at scientific conferences, production of video tutorials detailing the process of creating transgenic plants using developmental regulators and mentoring undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota.
The primary objective of the project is to investigate the possible utility of developmental regulator-mediated ectopic meristem formation to create an efficient and accessible genetic engineering method for crop species in the absence of tissue culture. Preliminary work has demonstrated codelivery of Cas9 editing reagents together with Wus2 and ipt coding sequences can promote formation of edited de novo meristems. However, this initial report was a proof of concept and requires optimization. This project focuses on the following aims to improve efficiency and translate utility of developmental regulator transformation technology - (1) Optimization: What is the best strategy for regulator gene delivery and Cas9-mediated editing? (2) Utility: Is homology directed repair in Nicotiana benthamiana using a developmental regulator transformation platform feasible? (3) Translation: Can the established developmental regulator transformation pipeline be utilized in agronomic crop species, such as tomato and potato? Due to the widespread application of genetic engineering and the difficulty of the conventional plant transformation process, the results from the present work could have a broad impact on research in plant biology. If possible, developmental regulator-mediated transformation could be used by researchers to easily create gene edits in agronomically significant crop species. Results and important observations from this work will be available to the public and research community through publications and video-based protocols.
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.
