James Birchler
University of Missouri-Columbia, MO·Genetics
Maize (corn) is both a major crop and a classic model for studying how chromosomes and genes behave. This lab's projects use maize genetics to ask three linked questions.
- Fields
Genetics
Plant Science & Agriculture
Biology
- Topics
maize
corn
Zea mays
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Test whether shifts in how often McClintock's tiny fragment chromosome is inherited stem from genome rearrangements caused by its X component, mapping them with whole chromosome painting and DNA sequencing.
- Distinguish gene silencing from chromosome loss in mosaic maize with and without Bronze1 pigment expression, using droplet digital PCR on mRNA and DNA, RNA-seq, and tests of heritability.
- Test whether WSS1, a DNA-cutting enzyme that helps DNA copying restart in repetitive DNA, is the X component, by CRISPR-Cas9 editing and overexpression and checking for chromosome rearrangements.
- Test whether hybrid vigor in maize comes from increased occupancy of RNA polymerase II, the enzyme that reads genes, causing a larger overall output of gene transcripts in hybrids.
- Determine whether aneuploidy, extra or missing chromosome regions, weakens hybrid vigor, by measuring total gene expression and adult biomass in inbred and hybrid maize.
- Build phiC31 integrase landing pads on five chromosomes and the B chromosome of fast-flowering mini-maize, allowing repeated gene stacking with marker removal by Cre recombinase.
- Convert gene-stacking mini-maize lines into haploid inducers that carry editing tools, so that any corn line can be gene-edited without tissue culture.
More about the research
What makes chromosomes break and rearrange? Why are hybrid plants bigger and more productive than their parents? And how can new genes be added or edited in corn quickly and precisely? Together they connect basic chromosome biology to tools that could speed crop improvement.
Why it matters
Hybrid crops are central to modern agriculture, yet the cause of hybrid vigor remains unsettled. A unifying explanation could let breeders edit plant genomes for better yields in predictable ways, as arable land shrinks and food demand grows. Fast, tissue-culture-free transformation and editing tools in mini-maize could speed genetic improvement of any corn line. The X component work could reveal a new genome activity behind the kinds of chromosome rearrangements seen during evolution.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Linda Hanley-Bowdoin
North Carolina State University, NC·Plant Science & Agriculture
Define and visualize DNA replication initiation regions and measure genome-wide transcription rates in B73 maize root tip meristems, using in vivo labeling of newly copied DNA and flow sorting of nuclei.
John Fowler
Oregon State University, OR·Plant Science & Agriculture
Measure gene-specific contributions to pollen fitness for several hundred maize genes, using fluorescently marked Ds-GFP insertion mutants and the EarVision automated imaging and computer vision phenotyping system.
Amanda De La Torre
Northern Arizona University, AZ·Plant Science & Agriculture·Early-career
Test whether hybrids between coastal and interior Douglas fir varieties show greater drought tolerance and growth than their parents, using physiological studies of pure varieties, F1, F2 and advanced-generation hybrids.
The school
University of Missouri-Columbia: 21 labs on PI Pages, $509M a year on research, 260 research doctorates a year.
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