| NSF Org: |
MCB Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 6, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | January 13, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 1716844 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
David Rockcliffe
drockcli@nsf.gov (703)292-7123 MCB Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | August 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | July 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $775,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $798,725.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2019 = $23,725.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1125 W MAPLE ST STE 316 FAYETTEVILLE AR US 72701-3124 (479)575-3845 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
210 Administration Building Fayetteville AR US 72701-1201 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
Systems and Synthetic Biology, EPSCoR Co-Funding |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
The aim of this project is to discover mutations in rice that increase photosynthesis efficiency. Plants capture the energy of sunlight through photosynthesis to produce sugars, starch, and a multitude of biologically active energy-rich molecules of life. Improving the efficiency of photosynthesis in plants, making it stable to environmental stresses, would provide us with a sustainable supply of food and nutrition as well as renewable energy to maintain the needs of the growing population. This interdisciplinary project will offer practical training to graduate and undergraduate students. This project also will produce hands-on laboratory exercises to improve knowledge of undergraduate and graduate students on plant diversity and environmental challenges affecting food security, and broadening the impact of plant sciences in STEM education. In addition, K-12 students from the Arkansas agricultural areas in the Delta region will be engaged by a STEM literacy outreach program providing experience in experimental plant sciences aimed at caring for the environment.
The project will use an integrated systems genetics approach to dissect the complex pathways of plant photosynthesis driving plant development and productivity. Genome wide association analysis of a diverse rice population identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with several parameters for photosynthetic efficiency. These SNPs will be used to identify the key genes determining important natural variation for photosynthesis. To understand the regulation of these interacting processes, it is essential to go beyond individual gene action or biochemical pathways. The integrated network approach employed will help place multiple genetically defined photosynthetic parameters in the context of gene regulatory pathways that underpin response to external factors, growth and development. A diverse set of computational formulations will be integrated into a consensus network using rank-based protocols, an approach proven to be robust for prediction of functional relationships. Predicted transcription factors will be tested in high throughput assays for their ability to activate photosynthesis genes in vivo, and confirmed in transgenic plants to unravel their downstream regulatory pathways. The systems genetic information from these genotypes will be used to reconstruct improved plants and crops with modular improvements in photosynthetic-based processes for diverse needs.
This project is co-funded by the Systems and Synthetic Biology Program in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences and by the NSF EPSCoR Program.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Photosynthesis is the basis of life on Earth, enabling plants and some lower organisms to fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce a myriad of organic molecules. In previous research we identified a transcriptional regulator from rice termed HYR, for Higher Yielding Rice, which when over-expressed in rice enhanced photosynthesis and subsequently the photosynthetic carbon metabolism (PCM) pathway that led to higher and stable grain yield.
The HYR overexpressing rice lines maintained PCM that buffered the rice lines to be tolerant to drought as well as high night temperature (HNT) stress, thus maintaining productivity of rice under these abiotic stresses.. In the NSF-MCB funded project we showed that enhanced expression of HYR by transformation of overexpression constructs into many elite rice cultivars belonging to indica as well as tropical japonica sub. species, maintained tolerance to many stresses that inhibited PCM. Further studies in the NSF-MCB project showed that HYR over-expressed in many rice varieties, such as Asian mega-variety IR64 or US variety Cocodrie, could enhance grain yield and quality with reduced chalkiness under high night temperature. These studies revealed that coordinated maintenance of the PCM pathway under stress was critical/advantageous for grain yield and quality. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of a diverse rice population for grain-yield (reduced seed-set) and -quality traits (chalky grain that break during processing) led the systematic effort towards identifying genes for stabilizing rice grain yield and quality under the threat of global warming caused by high nighttime temperature. This integrated project encompassing the research areas from genomics, crop-physiology, quantitative genetics and systems biology provides an overview of the multiple factors involved in the study and understanding of the problems to be faced due to global warming, and offers genetic solutions to stabilize production of world crops like rice.
An interesting conclusion can be gleaned from the research results presented here. By using different methods and strategies to enhance photosynthesis in the world crop rice, we find that many enhanced traits come together with increased photosynthesis. As documented here the rice genotypes with enhanced photosynthesis, also provide this feature under abiotic stress treatments such as drought and heat, as well as grain quality which is dependent on stability of the biochemical pathways for carbohydrate biosynthesis, even under stress treatments at the whole plant level. The conclusion is that changes in the biochemistry and regulation of pathways involved in crop production parameters support the stability of these processes under environmental stresses.
Last Modified: 08/18/2021
Modified by: Andy Pereira
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