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GCP Allele Mining
Contact: Dr Konstantina Stamati
Prof Wayne Powell
This Challenge Generation program funded project is a collaboration between NIAB, University Of Udine (Italy) and ICARDA (Syria).
In recent years, analysis of genetic variation has focused on the study of changes in DNA coding for proteins. It has now become increasingly clear that this only account for one aspect of heritable variation and for many traits, notably tolerance to environmental stresses, the level of gene expression is also likely to be of great importance. If changes in gene expression underlie many evolutionary changes in phenotype, then identifying the genetic variants that regulate gene expression is a significant and important endeavour. One of the key problems in genetics is how to identify this type of variation.
We aim to develop a robust, quantitative approach to efficiently identify plant genes that harbour such regulatory variants. The approach is novel and particularly amenable to plants since it is based on monitoring gene expression in experimentally created hybrids. Ultimately, this research will provide a new mechanism to connect genotype to phenotype based on changes in gene expression rather than changes in the structure of an encoded protein. We are currently characterising a series of genes identified to be potential candidates for tolerance to drought, frost, cold and salinity stresses.
Prof Wayne Powell
This Challenge Generation program funded project is a collaboration between NIAB, University Of Udine (Italy) and ICARDA (Syria).
In recent years, analysis of genetic variation has focused on the study of changes in DNA coding for proteins. It has now become increasingly clear that this only account for one aspect of heritable variation and for many traits, notably tolerance to environmental stresses, the level of gene expression is also likely to be of great importance. If changes in gene expression underlie many evolutionary changes in phenotype, then identifying the genetic variants that regulate gene expression is a significant and important endeavour. One of the key problems in genetics is how to identify this type of variation.
We aim to develop a robust, quantitative approach to efficiently identify plant genes that harbour such regulatory variants. The approach is novel and particularly amenable to plants since it is based on monitoring gene expression in experimentally created hybrids. Ultimately, this research will provide a new mechanism to connect genotype to phenotype based on changes in gene expression rather than changes in the structure of an encoded protein. We are currently characterising a series of genes identified to be potential candidates for tolerance to drought, frost, cold and salinity stresses.