Recipient Organization
MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
BOZEMAN,MT 59717
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Environmental conditions can dramatically alter the potency of herbicide applications. Elevated temperatures are of increasing concern, especially given predicted climate change. Under (reasonably) higher temperatures, herbicides generally become more effective; alarmingly, we have identified the opposite trend in some weeds. Therefore, in this project we will address this observation that some weeds become more resistant to herbicides in higher temperatures.To do so, we will build a foundation to understand how some plants become herbicide tolerant when temperatures are high. We will determine how high temperatures need to be and the duration of high temperatures necessary to cause reduced herbicide potency. Further, we will expose herbicide resistant weeds to strategically selected drugs to try to prevent their ability to block herbicides. We will explore the genetics of herbicide resistance at high temperatures to understand if this trait will be passed on to future generations of weeds. Finally, we will examine the cellular mechanisms that enable weeds to resist herbicides at high temperatures.By understanding how herbicide resistance can be induced by stressful environments, like high temperatures, we can inform the development of new tools and strategies to overcome weeds and prevent ineffectual use of herbicides. This will contribute to better environmental health and economic outcomes for agricultural markets.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
0%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
We seek to understand how weeds escape herbicide control through evolved resistance, and therefore we must consider how resistance varies across contexts. Our results will enable: 1) discovery of molecular mechanisms conferring resistance to critical crop protection chemicals, 2) better understanding of herbicide resistance evolution in future climates, and 3) improved knowledge of crop stress tolerance regulatory mechanisms. Ultimately, the long-term goal of this project is to share our results with producers in order to support their decisions about sustainable herbicide use.To pursue these goals, we are using the nefarious weed Avena fatua (wild oat) as a model system through the following objectives:Objective 1. Characterize patterns of wild oat constitutive herbicide resistance (cMHR) and inducible herbicide resistance (iMHR).1.1 Characterize iMHR due to heat stress across genotypes and herbicides1.2 Manipulate potential mechanisms to explore causation of cMHR and iMHRObjective 2. Characterize the genetic architecture of cMHR and iMHR in wild oats.Objective 2.1 Assess iMHR in recombinant inbred linesObjective 2.2 Map traits and examine trait covarianceObjective 3. Identify genetic hubs driving cMHR and iMHRObjective 3.1 Differential gene expression analysesObjective 3.2 Co-expression analysesObjective 3.3 Allele-specific expression and promoter motif analyses
Project Methods
For this project, we are utilizing three major biological approaches or methods to study the context dependence of herbicide resistance: 1) pharmacological manipulations, 2) genetic mapping, and 3) transcriptomics.For the first effort, we will be exposing wild oats to drugs that inhibit particular plant functions to understand the role of that function in contributing to herbicide resistance in ambient and heat stress conditions. We will evaluate levels of herbicide resistance for determining the role of the various functions.For the second effort, we will examine the genetics of herbicide resistance across contexts. We will evaluate correlations and covariances of herbicide resistance measured in ambient and heat stress conditions to understand whether the cellular mechanisms contributing to resistance are common across contexts.For the third effort, we will measure the transcriptomes of wild oats responding to herbicides and heat stress using three different methods. By examining the intersections across the three methods we will attemptto identify candidate genes that drive the regulation of herbicide resistance across contexts.