EAGER: Genetic transformation of common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca: Creating a model plant for ecological investigations

EAGER：常见马利筋（Asclepias syriaca）的遗传转化：创建用于生态研究的模型植物

• 批准号: 1513839
• 负责人: Anurag Agrawal
• 金额: $ 30.7万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-15 至 2018-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1513839&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Genetic; transformation; common; milkweed

Plants are the basic energy source in nearly all food chains and provide the essential resources to sustain all animal life either directly, through consumption, or indirectly, because carnivores eat herbivores, which eat plants. Tremendous consumption pressure on plants has led to the evolution of a remarkable diversity of tactics to defend against being consumed. This project will manipulate the genetics of the common milkweed to identify the basis for these defenses. With this information, the researchers can alter defenses in field populations to understand their consequences for the organisms that feed on milkweed, such as the threatened monarch butterfly. Deciphering the mechanisms of plant defense will significantly advance the field of evolutionary ecology. This project will translate methods used for crop plants to natural communities, demonstrating diverse ways in which genetic manipulations can improve our understanding of the ecology of species interactions and natural communities. Results will be welcomed by individuals and organizations interested in conserving species such as the monarch butterfly, and will contribute to public outreach efforts as well as to educational activities at all levels from K-12 through graduate students. Theory, observations, and experiments show that many plants traits have evolved by natural selection to ward off insect attack. Despite numerous demonstrations of how plant traits can reduce herbivory, scientists lack an understanding of the mechanisms underlying plant defensive responses in most wild plant species. This research will take advantage of recent developments in molecular biology and plant signaling to manipulate a key and universal pathway in plant defense signaling based on the hormone jasmonic acid. The researchers will first produce lines of genetically transformed plants that have various reduced levels of COI1 expression. Key challenges will be to improve efficiency and yield of transformants, and to generate empty vector controls from the same genetic background as each transformed line. They will then verify successful genetic silencing of COI1 by measuring COI1 transcript expression and plant sensitivity to jasmonic acid. The third objective is to improve the ability to propagate plants clonally for use in ecological experiments. The project will employ RNA-interference to genetically silence the perception of endogenous jasmonic acid in milkweed, an approach that bears significant risk. This native plant has been studied for its interactions with many insect pests. If this project is successful, milkweed could become a model in plant ecological research.

植物几乎是所有食物链中的基本能源，并为通过食用或间接维持所有动物生命提供了必不可少的资源，因为食肉动物吃的食草动物吃了植物。 对植物的巨大消费压力导致了一种显着的策略多样性，以防止被消耗。该项目将操纵普通乳草的遗传学，以确定这些防御能力的基础。有了这些信息，研究人员可以改变现场种群中的防御能力，以了解其对以牛奶质（例如受威胁的君主蝴蝶）的生物的影响。破译植物防御机制将显着推进进化生态的领域。该项目将将用于农作物的方法转化为自然社区，并展示各种方式，遗传操作可以改善我们对物种相互作用和自然社区的生态的理解。结果将受到有兴趣保存君主蝴蝶等物种的个人和组织的欢迎，并将为公众推广工作以及从K-12到研究生的各个层次的教育活动做出贡献。理论，观察和实验表明，许多植物特征通过自然选择而发展以防止昆虫攻击。尽管有许多关于植物特征如何减少草食性的证明，但科学家仍缺乏对大多数野生植物物种中植物防御反应的机制的理解。这项研究将利用分子生物学和植物信号传导的最新发展，以基于激素茉莉酸操纵植物防御信号的关键和通用途径。研究人员将首先产生遗传转化的植物线，这些植物具有不同的COI1表达水平。关键挑战将是提高转化体的效率和产量，并从与每个转化线相同的遗传背景中产生空的矢量控制。然后，他们将通过测量COI1转录本表达和植物对茉莉酸的敏感性来验证COI1的成功遗传沉默。第三个目标是提高在生态实验中使用克隆植物传播植物的能力。该项目将采用RNA干扰来遗传静止的乳草中内源性茉莉酸的感知，这种方法具有很大的风险。 该本地植物与许多害虫的相互作用进行了研究。如果这个项目成功，牛奶草可能会成为植物生态学研究的典范。