Location: Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research
2020 Annual Report
Accomplishments
1. Small RNA transcripts during infection by barley powdery mildew control transcriptional regulation and disease resistance signaling. Fungal pathogens are the greatest threats to cereal grain production worldwide. Among the wide array of nucleic acids in eukaryotic cells, small RNAs (sRNAs) are important regulatory molecules for diverse physiological processes. ARS scientists in Ames, Iowa, in collaboration with colleagues at the Danforth Center, St. Louis, Missouri, and funded by the National Science Foundation-Plant Genome Research Program, implemented a genome-wide investigation of sRNAs in the cereal grain crop barley, and its powdery mildew pathogen, and identified multiple roles in disease resistance and pathogen virulence. Using a sophisticated informatics approach, they demonstrated for the first time, that small RNAs are integral to gene regulation during infection by this destructive fungal pathogen. Knowledge from this research will impact how plant breeders select for disease resistance, one of the most important traits that affect crop yield, and thus food security.
2. Elucidation of the genomic basis for rapid environmental adaptation in maize. Environmental maladaptation is the foremost barrier to capitalizing on intraspecific variation in plant breeding. ARS scientists in Raleigh, North Carolina; Ames, Iowa; and Columbia, Missouri, collaborated with university colleagues to implement a novel study design to measure the adaptability of a tropical maize landrace under selection for performance in a temperate environment. The basis for rapid adaptation while maintaining ample genetic diversity was shown to involve a multitude of genes responding in successive phases. The findings of this study provide an important guide for mining tropical germplasm resources of corn that will be crucial for continued gains in crop protection and utilization.
3. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) program on plant genetics. Most young people are influenced to pursue STEM careers in secondary school rather than college. Thus, there is a need to enable these students, and their teachers, to understand the important impact and satisfaction that comes from ‘doing good science’. Over the past ten years, ARS scientists and staff in Ames, Iowa, have mentored forty teachers from Iowa and Tuskegee, Alabama, to implement the iTAG (inheritance of Traits and Genes) outreach curriculum in 195 classrooms, impacting 4,660 students, 1/3 of which are underrepresented from urban and rural communities. In FY 2019, this program impacted 144 new students from nine classrooms in six schools. Notably, one teacher then had 10 students that chose STEM career paths. Providing scientific opportunity to a diverse population will ensure the long-term development of a globally competitive STEM workforce.
Review Publications
Dennison, T., Qin, W., Loneman, D.M., Condon, S.G., Lauter, N.C., Nikolau, B.J., Yandeau-Nelson, M.D. 2019. Genetic and environmental variation impact the cuticular hydrocarbon metabolome on the stigmatic surfaces of maize. Biomed Central (BMC) Plant Biology. 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-019-2040-3.
Do Vale Martins, L., Yu, F., Zhao, H., Dennison, T., Lauter, N.C., Wang, H., Deng, Z., Thompson, A., Semrau, K., Rouillard, J., Birchler, J.A., Jiang, J. 2019. Meiotic crossovers characterized by haplotype-specific chromosome painting in maize. Nature Communications. 10:4604. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12646-z.
Falcon, C.M., Kaeppler, S.M., Spalding, E.P., Miller, N.D., Haase, N., Alkhalifah, N., Bohn, M., Buckler IV, E.S., Campbell, D.A., Ciampitti, I., Coffey, L., Edwards, J.W., Ertl, D., Flint Garcia, S.A., Gore, M.A., Graham, C., Hirsch, C.N., Holland, J.B., Jarquin, D., Knoll, J.E., Lauter, N.C., Lawrence-Dill, C.J., Lee, E.C., Lorenz, A., Lynch, J.P., Murray, S.C., Nelson, R., Romay, M., Rocheford, T., Schnable, P., Scully, B.T., Smith, M.C., Springer, N., Tuinstra, M., Walton, R., Weldekidan, T., Wisser, R.J., Xu, W., De Leon, N. Relative utility of agronomic, phenological, and morphological traits for assessing genotype-by-environment interaction in maize inbreds. Crop Science. 2020; 60:62-81. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20035
Hunt, M., Banerjee, S., Surana, P., Liu, M., Fuerst, G.S., Mathioni, S., Meyers, B.C., Nettleton, D., Wise, R.P. 2019. Small RNA discovery in the interaction between barley and the powdery mildew pathogen. Biomed Central(BMC)Genomics. 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-5947-z.
Mcfarland, B.A., Alkhalifah, N., Bohn, M., Bubert, J., Buckler IV, E.S., Ciampitti, I., Edwards, J.W., Ertl, D., Gage, J.L., Falcon, C.M., Flint Garcia, S.A., Gore, M., Graham, C., Hirsch, C., Holland, J.B., Hood, E., Hooker, D., Jarquin, D., Kaeppler, S., Knoll, J.E., Kruger, G., Lauter, N.C., Lee, E.C., Lima, D.C., Lorenz, A., Lynch, J.P., Mckay, J., Miller, N.D., Moose, S.P., Murray, S.C., Nelson, R., Poudyal, C., Rocheford, T., Rodriguez, O., Romay, M., Schnable, J.C., Schnable, P.S., Scully, B.T., Sekhon, R., Silverstein, K., Singh, M., Smith, M., Spalding, E.P., Springer, N., Thelen, K., Thomison, P., Tuinstra, M., Wallace, J., Walls, R., Wills, D., Wisser, R.J., Xu, W., Yeh, C., De Leon, N. Maize genomes to fields (G2F): 2014 –2017 field seasons: genotype, phenotype, climatic, soil and inbred ear image datasets. BMC Research Notes. 13,71 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-020-4922-8.
Wisser, R.J., Fang, Z., Holland, J.B., Teixeira, J.E., Dougherty, J., Weldekidan, T., De Leon, N., Flint-Garcia, S.A., Lauter, N.C., Murray, S.C., Xu, W., Hallauer, A. 2019. The genomic basis for short-term evolution of environmental adaptation in maize. Genetics. 213(4):1479-1494. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.119.302780.
Nino-Liu, D.O., Bancroft, T., Rajaram, M.L., Moscou, M., Caldo, R., Schmidt, C., Dorman, K., Yang, B., Patil, P., Szurek, B., Koebnik, R., Van Sluys, M., Leach, J.E., Salzberg, S.L., White, F.F., Nettleton, D., Wise, R.P., Bogdanove, A.J. 2017. Targeting of the rice transcriptome by TAL effectors of Xanthomonas oryzae. In: Wolpert, T., Shiraishi T., Collmer A., Akimitsu K., and Glazebrook J., editors. Genome-Enabled Analysis of Plant-Pathogen Interactions. St. Paul, Minnesota: American Phytopathological Society Press. p.193-206. https://doi.org/10.1094/9780890544983.021.
