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Manipulating meiotic recombination in crop species
Secondary Supervisor(s): Dr Lindsey Leach
University of Registration: University of Birmingham
BBSRC Research Themes: Sustainable Agriculture and Food (Plant and Crop Science)
Project Outline
Genetic variation generated through the process of homologous recombination (HR) during meiosis underpins plant breeding and efforts to deliver the rapid improvements in crops that will be required to ensure Food Security into the foreseeable future. HR is initiated by the programmed formation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by the SPO11 complex. DSBs are processed by components of the HR pathway where they are repaired as crossovers (COs), which recombine the homologous parental chromosomes, or non-crossovers (NCOs), where only short stretches of DNA are exchanged. In plants most DSBs (90%+) are repaired as NCOs. This limits the genetic variation that is generated in each meiotic division. Moreover, the distribution of COs, notably in cereal crops, is localized to particular chromosomal regions. The extensive work and collaborative efforts of the MEIOREC investigators have led to significant progress in understanding the basis of these limitations and have made headway in addressing them. Nevertheless, a full understanding of how the transition of a DSB at a particular genomic locus to yield a CO is controlled and how this can be optimized remains a major challenge. We believe that the combined expertise of the supervisory team provides a real opportunity to make substantial progress in addressing this important problem.
Controlled formation of meiotic COs involves a coordinated programme whereby DSBs are channeled through a series of transitions to form either CO or NCO products. The aim of this project is to decipher the DSB to CO transitional steps and evaluate strategies to manipulate CO formation using plant model species and crop species.
The project will investigate different changes of the distribution and localization of meiotic recombination that have been found in different plant material during recent years in our lab. It will use a combination of molecular biology, genetics, cytology, microscopy and genome sequence analysis to determine the different factors involved in this. Different crop species (Allium and wheats) will be analysed for this purpose.
Furthermore, chemical inhibitor analysis will be carried out in order to manipulate the different meiotic recombination outcomes. We will use chemical targeting epigenetics changes in meiotic chromosomes, DNA replication changes and protein degradation in order to obtain important changes in the number and distribution of meiotic recombination that could be used by Plant Breeders to allow them obtaining new genetic combinations in crop varieties.
