Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences for this project include the plant science community and the agricultural industry. Specifically, the potato industry and breeding communityaremajor targets.Undergraduate and graduate students are also target audiences for the project. Specifically, undergraduate and graduate students that are or will be trained under this project. Aspecial emphasis is placed on recruiting students from underrepresented groups including latino and first generation students. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Currently, 3graduate students are being trained under this project. 2 undergraduate students, 1 full-time technician, and a research assistant professor, all fromunderrepresented groups, are receiving traning under thisthis project How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Kosma gave 6 invited seminars over the past year in the US and presented his group's research at an international conference in Portugal. Furthermore, the research has been disemmenated to the international research community in the form of publications.The Cushman lab has presented the Opuntia cuticle research results at several conferencespertaining to bio-energy. Thus national and international science communities have been reached. Further, the Kosma lab has particpated in several outreach activities with the local ag community in Nevada including a farmer's conferences hosted by the Nevada Department of Agriculture, UNR's College af Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Natural Resources annual community outreach activity, CABNR Field Day. Santos has further engaged with a consortium of Nevada farmers, The Water, Air, Soil, Energy Resources Research Group to communicate the Kosma-Santos lab's specialty crop research (potato and carrot) and promote CABNR's mission to support Nevada Agriculture.Kosma and Santos have also conducted a workshop where lab exercises and teaching materials were disseminated to high school teachers from the Nevada Agriculture Teachers' Association. Collectively, the research results have been dissemenated to the national and international science communities, the local ag community, and the local ag teaching community. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to characterize the very novel cuticle of Opuntia (prickly pear cactus) in hopes of teasing apart the novel structure and biosynthesis of theis incredibly efficient cuticle.We will continue to characterize thetwo cultivars of potato that we have initially been working with, as well as2 new cultivars, interms of the molecular genetics andbiochemistry underlying differential wound suberin deposition and storability and with afocus on identifying and characterizing regulators of potato tuber wound deposition. We will now move into aspects of potato tuber defense against commercially-relevant pathogens that affect tuber yields through post-harvest infection. We have started to move into more "omics" related research to characterize the transcriptional network that regulates wound suberin deposition.Continued collaboration with potato breeder Dave Douches and Ray Hammerschmidt (Michigan State University)will help us to produce precision-bred potato lines with improved wound-healing capacity and storage life as well as contribute to his breeding program with the same goals. The long-term goal of this project is to help ameliorate the storage losses that occur in during tuber storage that result from poor wound healing. Up to $1.4 billion of the annual tuber crop us lost in storage. Reducing these losses by even 5% stands to improve economic return to farmers in the $100 million range.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We are currently working with two potato cultivars to identify causal factors underlying tuber storage life related to the regulated deposition of wound suberin. We have established quantitative differences in aliphatic wound suberin amounts in 4 potato varieties that differ in terms of storability and susceptibility to rots in storage We have established quantitative differences in phenolic wound suberin in 2 potato varieties that differ in terms of storability and susceptibility to rots in storage We have determined that wound suberin healing capacity is correlated with storage life Dr. Patricia Santos and PhD student Zach Wahrenburg have determined varieties that deposit more suberin are more resistant to tuber infection by soft rot (Pectobacterium carotovorum) and white mold (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) Santos and Wahrenburg have identified suberin-associated compounds that contribute to the differential resistance to S. sclerotiorum and P.carotovorum exhibited by the poor and well-wounding potato varieties Continued working with 4 different R2R3 MYB transcription factors important for regulating suberin biosynthesis Further characterized 2 transcription factors (R2R3 MYB) important for wound healing in potatoes and Arabidopsis thaliana Identified amino acid polymorphisms in 2 potato MYB transcription that contribute to the differential wound healing capacities of specific cultivars of potatoes Dr. Patricia Santos, rotation Ph.D. student Alexander Selvey, and undergraduate student Lindsey Grimes have generated constructs (plasmids) for Virus Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS) of transcription factors to better comprehend the regulated biosynthesis of wound suberin Generated RNAi lines in Arabidopsis thaliana to further characterize additional transcription factors that we have identified to regulate suberin biosynthesis Assembling constructs (plasmids) for RNAi silencing of suberin-related transcription factors in potato for functional characterization Dr. Ray Hammerschmidt (Michigan State University) has been examining the wound healing in relation to development of resistance to P. carotovorum (cause of soft rot), Fusarium sambucinum (cause of dry rot) and action of pectolytic/cellulolytic enzymes on tuber tissues of poor and well-wounding varieties Potato breeder Dave Douches is using the information from our research on transcription factors to introgress improved wound healing Assembling constructs for periderm specific expression of wound healing associated transcription factors for the targeted improvement of potato tuber storage life and resistance to the economically significant pathogen, P. carotovorum A graduate student in Cushman's lab, Jesse Mayer, has determined that Opuntia has a unique polymeric wax that contributes to the extreme drought stress tolerance of this plant. Future efforts are aimed at providing a precise molecular identity of these waxes. A publication is anticipated early in 2018
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
F Domergue, DK Kosma* (2017). Occurrence and Biosynthesis of Alkyl Hydroxycinnamates in Plant Lipid Barriers. Plants 6 (3), 25. *Corresponding author
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kosma, D. (Presenter & Author), Santos, P. (Author Only), Wahrenburg, Z. (Author Only), 2017 Plant Apoplastic Diffiusion Barriers Conference, Academic, Conference, "Investigating the Regulated Deposition of the Lipid-Phenolic Heteropolymer Suberin", Accepted, Instituto de Tecnologia Qu�mica e Biol�gica, Portugal. (September 15, 2017).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kosma, D. (Presenter & Author), Santos, P. (Author Only), Wahrenburg, Z. (Author Only), Joint Bioenergy Institute seminar series, Academic, Seminar, "Identification of Transcriptional Regulators of Wound Suberin Deposition", Invited, Joint Bioenergy Institute (UC Berkeley). Invited Seminar Presentation. (December 13, 2017).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kosma, D. (Presenter & Author), Santos, P. (Author Only), Wahrenburg, Z. (Author Only), UNL Center for Plant Science Innovation, Academic, Seminar, "A Corky Predicament: Investigating the Regulated Deposition of the Lipid-Phenolic Plant Heteropolymer Suberin", Invited Seminar Presentation, University of Nebraska Lincoln. (October 31, 2017).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kosma, D. (Presenter & Author), Santos, P. (Author Only), Wahrenburg, Z. (Author Only), UMN Department of Plant and Microbial Biology Seminar Series, Academic, Seminar, "A Corky Predicament: Transcriptional Regulation of Suberin Deposition during Plant Wounding", Invited Seminar, University of Minnesota. (November 14, 2017).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kosma, D. (Presenter & Author), Santos, P. (Author Only), Wahrenburg, Z. (Author Only), Carnegie Institution for Science - Department of Plant Biology, Academic, Seminar, "Identification of Transcriptional Regulators of Wound Suberin Deposition", Invited Seminar, Carnegie Institution for Science. (August 9, 2017).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Wahrenburg, Z. (Presenter & Author), Benesch, E. (Author Only), Hammerschmidt, R. (Author Only), Douches, D. (Author Only), Santos, P. (Author Only), Kosma, D., Bierkamper Symposium, Academic, Conference, "Identification and Characterization of Transcriptional Factors that Regulate Wound Periderm Formation in Potato Tubers", Accepted, University of Nevada Reno. (July 24, 2017).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Wahrenburg, Z. (Presenter & Author), Benesch, E. (Author Only), Hammerschmidt, R. (Author Only), Douches, D. (Author Only), Santos, P. (Author Only), Kosma, D., American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting, Academic, Conference, "Identification and Characterization of Transcriptional Factors that Regulate Wound Periderm Formation in Potato Tubers", Accepted, American Society of Plant Biologists. (June 24, 2017).
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kosma, D. (Presenter & Author), Santos, P. (Author Only), Wahrenburg, Z. (Author Only), WVU Department of Plant and Soil Sciences Seminar Series, Academic, Seminar, "Identification of Transcriptional Regulators of Wound Suberin Deposition", Invited, West Virginia University. (February 2, 2017).
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Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences The target audiences for this project include the general scientific community and the agricultural industry. Specifically, the potato industry is one of the major targets. Undergraduate and graduate students are also target audiences for the project. Specifically, undergraduate and graduate students that are or will be trained under this project. A special emphasis is placed on recruiting students from underrepresented groups including latino and first generation students. Efforts Efforts to disperse the knowledge generated from this project include presentation of the research at International Symposium on Plant Lipids in Goettingen Germany. This symposium brings together the worlds foremost authorities on plant oils and the lipids that Kosma works on, suberin. Further, Kosma presented this research as an invited speaker at West Virginia University. The Kosma lab is also providing several opportunties to one undergraduate student to complete a senior thesis research project, essentially an experiential learning opportunity. Furthermore, 2 part-time technicians, 2 undergraduates students, and a research assistant professor are receiving (or providig) hands on training. We are also establishing connections with US potato farmers in Nevada and South Dakota. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Currently, one graduate student is being trained under this project. A second graduate student is receiving partial training under this project. 4 undergraduate students, 2 part-time technicians, and a research assistant professor, all from underrepresented groups, are receiving experiential training (hands on) through this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The Kosma lab presented research results on potato wounding to the international plant science community at the Interational Symposium on Plant Lipids. The Cushman lab has presented the results of the Opuntia research at several conferences pertaining to bio-energy. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? To continue characterizing the two cultivars of potato that we have initially been working with, and the 2 new cultivars, in terms of the molecular genetics and biochemistry underlying differential wound suberin deposition and storability and with a focus on identifying and characterizing regulators of potato tuber wound deposition. To begin precision breeding approaches aimed at altering tuber wound healing capacity. To continue characterization of the prickly pear cactus cuticle.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We have continued to characterize two potato cultivars that differ in wound healing capacity and long term storability were identified in collaboration with potato breeder (Dave Douches) from Michigan State University. We have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms in transcription factors that we believe underlie the differential wound healing and storage capacities of these two potato cultivars. We have expanded our efforts to include 2 more commercially relevant cultivars of potato that also exhibit differential wound healing and storability. We have profiled the expression of suberin biosynthesis genes demonstrating that these two cultivars exhibit dramatic differences in gene expression during wounding. Further, we have begun to explore differences in the phenolic composition of the wound tissue that is known to participate in defense against pathogens. We have further determined that the prickly pear cactus Opuntia ficus-indica has a very unique cuticle composition that is likely a major determinant of reduced daytime water loss and the capacity of this plant species to survive extreme conditions of water deficit.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
International Symposium on Plant Lipids, 2017, Goettingen, Germany.
On the Regulated Deposition of Wound Suberin
Jazmin Jimenez, Patricia Santos, Elizabeth Benesch, Jhadeswar Murmu, Owen Rowland, and Dylan K Kosma
Suberin is a heteropolymer of aliphatics and phenylpropanoids whose presence is nearly universal in the plant kingdom. It is found in specific cell types including endodermis, periderm, and seed coats. It is also produced in response to environmental stress including wounding. Until recently, little has been known about the transcriptional regulation of suberin deposition. We recently discovered and described the first transcription factor known to regulate suberin deposition, AtMYB41. Here we describe aspects of the transcriptional regulation of wound suberin deposition including the discovery of a novel transcription factor that appears to regulate wound suberin deposition.
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