Location: Sunflower and Plant Biology Research
Project Number: 3060-21220-033-002-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 16, 2019
End Date: Sep 15, 2024
Objective:
The objective of this work is to identify genes, signaling pathways and processes associated with adaptation to withstand winter temperatures and appropriately flower the following spring. We expect to identify targets for manipulating the response of perennial and biennial crops to seasonal freezing stress. This work should help produce more freezing tolerant crop and horticultural plants, extending both the northward and southward expansion of the range of these valuable species.
Approach:
Primarily, we will be utilizing both greenhouses, field, and controlled environmental chambers to manipulate the growth and developmental conditions perceived by biennial and perennial agricultural and horticultural species. RNA will be extracted from the treated plants collected after various treatments, and these will be subjected to RNAseq analysis. Shared resources will be used to analyze the data to identify differentially expressed genes associated with changing environments. This data will be further analyzed to identify probable regulatory elements and signals controlling the differentially-expressed genes. Additionally, reduced representation genomic libraries may be produced by one of several possible methods and sequenced using next generation sequencing technologies and subsequent bioinformatics methods to identify molecular markers associated with the response of specific cultivars to a given environmental treatment using a genome-wide association study approach.
