Genes Required to Make a Soybean Seed

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

During the next 50 years there will be a need to produce more food than in the entire history of mankind on a decreasing amount of land suitable for crop production. A major challenge, therefore, is to increase the yield of major crops significantly in order to increase food production using the limited amount of land available for growing crops. Seeds represent a major source of food for human consumption. The long-term objective of this project is to use state-of-the-art genomic technologies to uncover the gene networks required to "make a seed." Our rationale is that by understanding the gene pathways required for the establishment of seed form and function, novel approaches can be designed for increasing seed yield and, therefore, food production. The experiments in this project will investigate the regulatory networks required for seed differentiation in higher plants. Soybeans will be used to investigate gene activity in seed development because (1) soybean seeds are one of the largest sources of protein feed and vegetable oil in the world, providing $18 billion annually in farm value to the U.S., (2) soybean seeds have traditionally served as an important system for studying the basic processes controlling seed development, and (3) remarkable progress has been made in recent years in developing genomic resources that can be used to gain new insights into the regulatory genes and pathways that play major roles in "how to make a soybean seed." State-of-the-art microscope technology (i.e., laser capture microdissection) will be used to isolate specific compartments, tissues, and cell types from soybean seeds at early stages of development - including the seed coat, endosperm, and embryo regions and organ systems. Microarray, EST sequencing, and quantitative RT-PCR experiments will be carried out in order to determine (1) the spectrum of genes and processes that are active in different parts of seed and (2) how transcription factors are partitioned within a seed. Functional studies will also be carried out in order to determine what role compartment and tissue-specific transcription factors play in soybean seed development. All of the microarrary data and EST sequences will be deposited in public databases (e.g., GenBank, GEO) and made available to the scientific community. The experiments carried out in this project will provide new insights into the gene sets and transcriptional regulators that are present in different cells and tissues of a seed at the earliest stages of development and will provide a novel resource for dissecting the mechanisms required for seed development - in soybean and other crop plants. In addition, undergraduates majoring in both science and the humanities will participate in this project in order for them to learn first hand about the "excitement of discovery."