By Andi Anderson
Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are spearheading a groundbreaking project to enhance the resilience of corn against climate change.
With $720,000 in funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, this three-year project aims to improve genomic selection, a method widely used in plant breeding today.
Genomic selection leverages computer models to predict plant performance based on their genetic makeup, offering greater efficiency than traditional breeding methods.
Although current models can predict phenotypes with 80 to 90% accuracy, project leader Martin Bohn, a professor in the Department of Crop Sciences, believes that there is room for further improvement.
“Genomic selection works; plant breeding companies rely on it. However, we want to develop high-accuracy prediction models that can tell us how a genotype will perform in a certain environment. Unfortunately, predicting genotype by environment interactions is still kind of a problem,” said Bohn.
The current genomic selection process focuses on single nucleotide polymorphisms, which may not always predict traits accurately.
Bohn’s team, including Illinois crop sciences professor Alex Lipka and researchers from the University of Arkansas and the University of Minnesota, is enhancing these models by adding gene expression markers. These markers will help predict how corn hybrids and inbreds respond to environmental stresses like heat and drought.
The project will build on data from the Genomes to Fields (G2F) initiative, where 288 elite corn hybrids were tested across 25 locations in the U.S.
In their new study, the team will expose seedlings to heat and cold stress in controlled environments and analyze RNA to understand gene expression responses. This approach allows for faster and more efficient breeding trials compared to traditional field trials.
Bohn emphasized the importance of studying gene interactions within co-expression networks to better understand how genes work together in response to stress. “We want to know what genes are working together in response to a specific stress,” he said. This information could lead to more accurate predictions and better-adapted corn varieties for changing climates.
The ultimate goal of this research is to redefine corn breeding strategies, making them more adaptable to rapid environmental changes. As Bohn noted, “Utilizing gene expression, looking at the variation and the average gene expression as a response to new environmental conditions, will allow them to do that.”
This innovative project not only aims to strengthen food security but also ensures that corn breeding keeps pace with the rapidly changing climate.
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Categories: Illinois, Education