Location: Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research
Project Number: 8062-21000-050-026-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2024
End Date: Apr 30, 2025
Objective:
The overall goals of this research project are to build the genome editing capacity to produce stress tolerant tomato lines; and to produce a team of 1890 faculty and students with competitive skills in using this technology. Project objectives are developed in line with the NIFA Strategic Plan (2014-2018), Strategic Goal No 1. Science: Catalyze exemplary and relevant research, education and extension programs. Specific objectives include: the establishment of a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/protein 9, (CRISPR/Cas9) gene editing capability at Tennesee State University (TSU) Biotechnology; to produce CRISPR/Cas9 construct lines of heat-responsive genes, to screen for heat tolerance traits to be integrated in long term tomato projects; and to promote student success using the project platforms.
Approach:
Specific activities performed in the ARS labs will include 1) a comparative proteomic analysis of treated and control plant material using a 10-plex Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) strategy on pollen mother cells (PMC) at meiosis, tetrads, and microspore stages, tapetal and viable and non-viable pollen cells with a view towards identifying off-target activities associated with the gene editing process; 2) Students from TSU will be trained in proteomics at the RW Holley Center for Agriculture and Health through their participation in these research activities.
