Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Yuke He
Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, SIBS-CAS, China
Keynote: Epigenetic control of leafy heads in Brassica crops
Time : 00:00
Biography:
Yuke He graduated from Horticulture Department, Northwestern Agricultural University in Dec of 1981, studied in Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding, Wageningen, The Netherlands from 1985 to 1987, and got Ph.D. degree from Biology Department, Lanzhou University in June of 1991, worked as post-doc in Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1991-to 1993, and worked as associate professor in Horticulture Department, Northwestern Agricultural University from 1987 and professor in Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1993, and acted as the deputy director of Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences during 2011-2015, and the head of Joint Lab of Molecular Breeding from 2010.
Abstract:
Leafy head is one type of important vegetable product composed of incurved leaves. Several crops producing leafy head show the leaves with downward curvature, flatness and incurvature at seedling, rosette and heading stages, respectively. Physiological studies have shown that the formation of leafy head is affected by internal elements such as C/N ratio and source/sink ratios and environmental factors such as temperature, light intensity and photoperiod. However, genetic basis for formation of leafy heads is unclear. In the previous study, we used flat and incurved leaves of Chinese cabbage to isolate BcpLH (Brassica campestris ssp. pekinensis Leafy Heads) gene from a cDNA library by differential hybridization. By Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, we transferred brp-miR319a gene to a round-head variety. In the transgenic lines, miR319a-targeted genes were down-regulated, while the round heads were modified into oblong heads. In the head leaves of the transgenic plants, TCP genes were downregulated by exogenous miR319a. The marginal regions of lateral areas in these head leaves were extremely wavy and knotted, apparently due to prolonged and enhanced cell division and vein differentiation in hydathode regions. The accumulation and distribution of miR319a in head leaves affect head shape, and artificial miR319a is useful for genetic improvement of head shape for favorable vegetable products. On the other hand, we found that BrpSPL9-2 (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis Squamosa Promoter Binding-Like 9-2), a target gene of microRNA brp-miR156, controls the heading time of Chinese cabbage. Overexpression of a miR156-resistant form of BrpSPL9 caused leaf curvature (folding) to occur much earlier, causing early time of leaf heading. By contrast, overexpression of miR156 delayed leaf curvature so it occurred in later leaves, resulting in a delay of leaf heading. BrpSPL9 genes control heading time by accelerating adult development, and thus are potentially important for genetic improvement of earliness of Chinese cabbage and other crops. On the other hand, natural antisense transcripts of flowering inhibiting genes BrpFLC tune the timing of head maturity by regulation of the flowering time. Our findings suggest that miRNAs and non-coding RNAs control the shape, size and timing of leafy head in Brassica crops, thus provide an innovative approach to epigenetic manipulation of agricultural products.
Keynote Forum
Rainer Roehe
Professor, Scotland’s Rural College, United Kingdom
Keynote: The potential impact of the microbiome in future agriculture
Time : 00:00
Biography:
Rainer Roehe is Professor of Animal Genetics and Microbiome at SRUC. He has a long-term carrier in animal breeding and genomics using trials and cutting-edge bioinformatics to understand the genomic architecture of complex traits in farmed animals. His current research is focusing on host genetic interactions with the microbiome in ruminants and monogastrics to genetically improve important animal trait such as growth, feed conversion efficiency, meat quality, animal stress susceptibility, health, methane emissions, etc. He is using whole genome metagenomic sequencing of samples from the rumen and the intestinal tract to simultaneously identify the relative abundance of the microbial community and the microbial genes. Relating this information to important traits, he developed a new microbiome strategy for improvement of complex traits. The strategy can be used more generally for soil microbial improvement, plant and animal breeding and nutrition, and even to identify the impact of the microbiome on human health.
Abstract:
General aim: Most microbial communities are living in symbiosis with the host (plant, animals) so that improvement of their interactions, e.g. by genetics, nutrition, is expected to result in an increase in performance, health, efficiency and less environmental impact of production. For enhancement of plant performances many microbial products (biofertility and biocontrol) are developed which valued USD 1 billion in 2012 and expected to exceed USD 7 billion in 2019. For animal breeding, our own results indicate that there is a host genetic effect on the composition of the microbial community. Animal breeding is known to be very cost-effective because the genetic improvement is cumulative, persistent and can potentially be disseminated worldwide. The purpose of this study is to give a general overview of the impact of the microbiome on plant and animal production and to provide strategies to use microbial information in breeding, nutritional intervention, etc. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Metagenomic whole genome sequencing of the microbial community is very informative to provide the composition of microbial community and in particular the microbial gene abundances, which were related to traits. Findings: The relative abundances of the microbial community and in particular the microbial genes are closely related to feed conversion efficiency (FCE) and methane emissions (CH4) in bovine explaining 86% and 81% of the variation of these traits, respectively. Additionally, most microbial genes identified could be associated with biological mechanisms of those traits. Conclusion & Significance: The relative abundance of the significant microbial genes is recommended to be used to predict the traits of interest, which can be used for their improvement using genetic selection, nutritional intervention, etc. (Fig. 1). In cases, in which performance testing is very costly (as for FCE and CH4); this methodology is substantially more cost-effective and will improve symbiotic effects between microbiome and host.