NSF Award
2427904
An essential component for plant synthetic biology applications is the availability of robust and reliable chromosome platforms that can be manipulated freely, transmitted faithfully, and mobilized easily between individuals without linkage drag. Research focused on engineering synthetic chromosome platforms has resulted in several promising findings, utilizing induced breakage of native chromosomes followed by DNA repair to derive endogenous minichromosomes. However, the practical use of such endogenously derived minichromosomes for biotechnological applications remains problematic due to challenges inherent in their stability and transmission during meiosis. To address and engineer meiotically stable minichromosomes, this project will investigate how derived minichromosomes from Arabidopsis affect plant reproduction and growth. This research enables the development of methods that push the limits on the size, structure, and composition of plant minichromosomes, toward designing a programmable extrachromosomal DNA platform for PlantSynBio applications. This effort represents an integrated NSF-DBT binational project between the University of Maine (USA) and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram (India). By enhancing biotechnological tools for plant breeding, the project charts a path to rapidly transfer genetic traits to combat biotic and abiotic challenges that crop plants may face in the future of our bioeconomy. Working across international and societal boundaries, linking collaborative biotechnologically-relevant research between two institutions broadens participation and enriches the educational and training experiences for our trainees and students, many of whom are rural, first-generation college students.<br/><br/>This collaborative project is aimed at advancing fundamental knowledge on derived plant minichromosomes that can potentially lead to improved methods to engineer stably transmissible chromosomal platforms in plants. By employing a top-down, stepwise approach, this work will test the limits on the size, structure and composition of plant minichromosomes. By taking advantage of the wealth of newly available gapless telomere to telomere assemblies, m5C base calling technologies, multi-omics tools, and advances in plant transformation, this project addresses outstanding questions about the fate of minichromosomes after their derivation in planta. A comprehensive understanding of the impacts of minichromosomes to an organism, their genetic composition, structural organization, stability, segregation patterns, and transmission efficiency gained from this work may further aid in delving into the evolutionary mechanisms that contribute to the emergence and persistence of supernumerary chromosomes. Additionally, by learning how to manipulate and engineer derived minichromosomes that are meiotically stable, it may be possible to translate insights gained about the structural and functional requirements of minichromosomes in order to design fully synthetic chromosomal chassis to advance other agricultural crops. All data, resources and source code generated will be made available to public after publication and through public repositories.<br/><br/>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.
