CHARACTERIZING THE BIOSYNTHESIS AND STRUCTURE-FUNCTION OF STRIGOLACTONES TO ENHANCE BENEFICIAL MICROBIAL SYMBIOSIS

This project has three major goals that will support the development of crops improved for beneficial microbial symbiosis.Identify and characterize candidate strigolactone (SL) biosynthesis gene familiesIdentify selective relationships between orobanchol- or strigol-type tomato and beneficial microbesEngineer stereospecific SL biosynthesis in CYP722C for the development of SL-tuned, gene edited cropsObjectives associated with these goals are:1.1 Construct phylogeny of SL biosynthesis gene (CYP722) homologs1.2 Functionally characterize homologs in vivo2.1 Determine the effect of SL stereoisomers on commercial AMF colonization of tomato2.2 Compare the microbiome of 5DS- versus orobanchol-type tomato3.1 Identify stereospecificity-determining residues (SDRs) in CYP722C and generate variants3.2 Evaluate candidate SDRs in yeast and in plantae