NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:CEREAL CROPS PRODUCE GRAIN FOR OUR FOOD AND FEED, THEREFORE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THESE PLANTS CAN HELP TO IMPROVE CROP YIELDS. GLOBALLY, MAIZE IS OUR MOST CULTIVATED AND MOST PRODUCTIVE CEREAL CROP, AND PRIOR RESEARCH HAS FOUND THAT CHANGES IN GENES THAT MODULATE HOW THE PLANT DEVELOPS HAVE LED TO YIELD INCREASES. THIS PROJECT WILL STUDY HOW POOLS OF STEM CELLS CALLED MERISTEMS DIRECT HOW THE MAIZE PLANT GROWS AND DEVELOPS. THE MERISTEMS ARE MAINTAINED IN BALANCE BY A FEEDBACK CONTROL LOOP BETWEEN THE CLAVATA AND WUSCHEL GENES. THE PROJECT WILL USE GENETIC AND GENOMIC APPROACHES TO STUDY A NEWLY IDENTIFIED MERISTEM CONTROL GENE, FASCIATED EAR3 (FEA3), WHICH CODES FOR A CELL SURFACE RECEPTOR PROTEIN, AND OTHER CANDIDATE SIGNALING PROTEINS THAT WE IDENTIFIED BY THEIR INTERACTION WITH FEA3.EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THIS PROJECT ARE A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SIGNALING DURING MAIZE PLANT GROWTH, AND THE GENERATION OF NEW MAIZE VARIANTS THAT COULD IMPROVE INFLORESCENCE SIZE AND SEED PRODUCTIVITY, IMPORTANT TRAITS FOR FOOD, FEED AND BIOMASS PRODUCTION. THE OBJECTIVES TARGET THE PROGRAM AREA PRIORITY IN PHYSIOLOGY OF AGRICULTURAL PLANTS, IN DEVISING WAYS TO IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY OF AGRICULTURALLY-IMPORTANT PLANTS, USING MOLECULAR, BIOCHEMICAL AND WHOLE-PLANT APPROACHES. IN PARTICULAR, THE GENES AND NETWORKS STUDIED IN THE PROJECT MAY BE APPLIED IN CONVENTIONAL BREEDING OR IN BIOTECHNOLOGY APPROACHES, FOR EXAMPLE USING CRISPR/ CAS9 GENOME EDITING, TO IMPROVE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF US AGRICULTURE BY IMPROVING CROP YIELDS.