| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 20, 2021 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 20, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 2110676 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Erik Pierstorff
epiersto@nsf.gov (703)292-0000 TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | August 1, 2021 |
| End Date: | July 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $256,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $256,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
640 SW SUNDANCE CT PULLMAN WA US 99163-2080 (509)432-3265 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
222 Mary Jane Lane Pullman WA US 99163-2080 |
| 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): | SBIR Phase I |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| 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): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve agricultural production. Of the global production differences with projected yields, about 25% results from disease and insects, and the remaining 75% is due to abiotic stresses. Wild relatives of crop plants harbor tremendous number of value-added genes for various agronomic traits including biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, but their transfer using currently available methods is practically impossible as it is time-consuming, technically challenging, and risky as undesirable traits may be transferred with the target trait - rendering it unusable in the field. The proposed project will develop a novel method to transfer useful genes from wild relatives in a precise and targeted manner, without the accompanying undesirable traits. This will improve agricultural yields.
The proposed project will develop a quick, targeted, and precise method of transferring value-added genes from wild relatives into crops, without accompanying unwanted genes (linkage drag). While the crop plants can easily be crossed to their wild relatives, chromosomes of wild relatives do not pair with their crop plant counterparts. This is due to a strict chromosome pairing and recombination control that is present in all crop plants. Lack of chromosome pairing between crop and wild relative chromosomes results in the transfer of whole chromosomes/arms carrying thousands of genes of which only one or two are useful. Tremendous efforts over the last 70 years have resulted in the transfer of 540 genes from wild relatives into wheat. While each transfer effort took more than 10 years, fewer than 10 of these genes are actually present in wheat varieties, mainly because of the associated negative effects of linkage drag as almost all transfers are complete chromosomes, arms or large segments. The proposed project will develop a novel method to transfer value-added genes from wild relatives into crops in less than a year without any linkage drag.
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.
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.
Wild relatives of crop plants are known genetic repositories for novel alleles controlling value-added traits, including that for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. This resource of value-added traits is vast as each crop plant has a large number of wild relatives. Wheat, for example, has 220 wild relative species carrying a wealth of value-added alleles. This amazing resource has so far not been utilized effectively for crop improvement. While it is relatively easy to cross and transfer chromosomes from wild relatives into cultivated plants, strict recombination and chromosome pairing barriers don’t allow recombination between chromosomes of crops with their wild relative homoeologs. As a result, almost all alien gene transfers accomplished so far have been of either complete chromosomes, arms, or very large segments. An average wheat chromosome carry about 4761 genes of which only one or few are useful for crop improvement. No method was available to transfer single/few alien genes into crops in a targeted manner. Furthermore, the currently available alien gene transfer methods require complicated cytogenetic manipulation, and the transfer of each gene/allele takes 5-15 years.
Biotech Naturale, Inc has developed a novel method of alien gene transfer using which they can transfer a small alien segment carrying only one or a few genes in a targeted and precise manner. Unlike current methods, they developed a non-GMO method that can result in complete alien gene transfers in less than a year. Unlike most other gene transfer methods that result in insertion-deletion of the target crop DNA, their method transfers genes to their natural homoeologous location, thus do not result in any insertion or deletion. During the Phase-I of the project, they provided a proof of concept of their technology by transferring a well-known gene (Pm8) from rye to wheat, which provides resistance to the powdery mildew disease of wheat. Starting with a short arm of a rye chromosome that has 4996 genes, just in one year, they managed to transfer a very small rye chromosomal segment, which is only 0.012% of the total chromosome and carrying only 2 genes, into wheat. They have also developed DNA markers for the transferred region that will be valuable for breeding and selecting the target traits. During phase 2, the company plans to perform the research and development necessary to establish a complete pipeline from alien gene transfer to commercial products in the form of crop varieties and germplasm. Since the molecular mechanism being exploited by the company for this process is highly conserved among other crop plants, the method will likely work in other plants as well.
Last Modified: 10/31/2024
Modified by: Kanwardeep Rawale
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