"... there is no doubt that the wild forms, ancestral to the presently cultivated species, deserve the same research efforts as given the cultivated species." (Nikolai I Vavilov, 1887-1943)
Species’ adaptations involve the change in their genetic make-up as a result of both selection and stochastic processes. The ability of plants to cope with different environments depends on the range of genetic and epigenetic diversity in populations, which relate to plastic and constitutive mechanisms that stabilize or destabilize core functions. Projected climatic changes in the upcoming decades include temperature increases and fluctuations that would constrain crop productivity and its improvement. Going back to the wild ancestors of modern crops and investigating new sources of molecular variation, which underlies adaptation to biotic and abiotic challenges, is imperative. In our group, and in collaboration with others, we explore the triangle Environment-Genotype-Phenotype while observing both the source and sink organs that regulates grain yield. We develop genomic infrastructure (wild B1K collection & the interspecific wild-cultivated cytoplasmic multi-parent CMPP population) and phonemics tools (SensyPAM). These resources allow the scanning of barley genomes in search of the needles in the haystack (genes) that mediate these interactions. Furthermore, we develop and implement genome editing tools (RECAS9) to recombine alleles from the wild and cultivated backgrounds to allow pinpointing of causal variation that regulate the source-sink relationship under abiotic stresses.
Species’ adaptations involve the change in their genetic make-up as a result of both selection and stochastic processes. The ability of plants to cope with different environments depends on the range of genetic and epigenetic diversity in populations, which relate to plastic and constitutive mechanisms that stabilize or destabilize core functions. Projected climatic changes in the upcoming decades include temperature increases and fluctuations that would constrain crop productivity and its improvement. Going back to the wild ancestors of modern crops and investigating new sources of molecular variation, which underlies adaptation to biotic and abiotic challenges, is imperative. In our group, and in collaboration with others, we explore the triangle Environment-Genotype-Phenotype while observing both the source and sink organs that regulates grain yield. We develop genomic infrastructure (wild B1K collection & the interspecific wild-cultivated cytoplasmic multi-parent CMPP population) and phonemics tools (SensyPAM). These resources allow the scanning of barley genomes in search of the needles in the haystack (genes) that mediate these interactions. Furthermore, we develop and implement genome editing tools (RECAS9) to recombine alleles from the wild and cultivated backgrounds to allow pinpointing of causal variation that regulate the source-sink relationship under abiotic stresses.
Lab News
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> Sept-17-21 Welcome Jozif! Just joined the lab as a candidate PhD student after finalizing his MSc in U of Hamburg. Good luck in studying the genetics behind RECAS9..
> We welcome Abby Cook for couple of months of Sachlav (Orchid) internship in ARO. Good luck! > June, 2021 keeps the good grant tide (Knock-Knock...) with new BARD grant for 2021-2024, together with Dan Koenig (UCR) and Scott Lenaghan (UTK). Studying and utilizing barley plasmotype diversity for barley adaption > May-3 We welcome two new PhD students in lab: Ayelet Kurtz-Son and Schewach Bodenheimer. Good Luck in studying genetics and genome editing of phenotypic plasticity and robustness!...in barley of course. > April-26 Bdolach strikes again with his piece "Plasmotype: A hidden diversity for understanding and improving plant fitness under fluctuating abiotic environments in barley" has been accepted as an oral presentation in next SEB meeting. > First paper for 2021 from the lab is now accepted to New Phytologist! great team work of so many great people . Including data from field, SensyPAM, MARSseq with Qgen, and more. We identified pleiotropic drivers of the clock (DOC) loci with signatures of selection under domestication and improvement [a thread on that will be coming in Twitter soon). Great start for 2021 and for follow-up studies. > 2021 starts well... with a new BSF-NSF with Markita Landry (http://landrylab.com/) to develop nano-particles methods in QTL mapping by genome-editing. > October 2020: Well, RECAS9 project gets accelerated with a new awarded grant from the Chief Scientist of Ministry of Agriculture for three years! In collaboration with Ron Bernstein (ARO) and Asaph Aharoni (Weizmann Institute) we will integrate mechanical and genetic engineering approaches for CRISPR/CAS9 based trait mapping in barley. MSc applicants are welcomed, to join forces with Manas, Orit and Saar. >Aug 2020: Welcome Saar Mitrani! Engineering student is joining the lab to develop tissue culture automation w/Ron Bernstein@ARO. This should help boost our genome editing activities down the road.. >July 2020: CAPITALISE Horizon 2020 project starts!! CAPITALISE-H2020 @photosynth_2030 >April 2020 : Due to COVID-19 some of our planned presentations cancelled or went virtual: 1. The planned talk on RECAS9 in Keystone meeting cancelled with meeting [postponed to 2021; March 8-12, 2021 @ ] 2. Presenting the newly developed barley Cytoplasmic Multiparent Population in PEGQ/TAGC 2020 will be virtual Thursday, April 30 2:30 - 2:32 PM >Jan-1-2020: We welcome Dr. Lalit Dev Tiwari, as a new postdoc in lab. Lalit graduated in University of Delhi, India under the supervision of Prof Anil Grover. > Another great collaborative work with Karl Schmid (@kjschmid ), and newly developed one with Stephan Greiner (Golm, Max Planck) resulted with publication in PCE (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pce.13606) > Jan-2019: Shelly is awarded the HUJI Excellence Fellowship for MSc students at the Biotechnology track. Way to go! > Jan-1-2019: Manas is awarded the (competitive) ARO fellowship for postdocs for 2019-2020. Congratulations! and great start for 2019 |
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