EpiCrop Technologies Inc — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.2

Description

The fundamental goal in agriculture is higher yields per acre, in conjunction with requiring thesame or lower inputs. To achieve these higher yields, more energy and water efficient plants arerequired. One of the fundamental biological processes involved in producing these phenotypes isheterosis, i.e., increased yields from hybrid progeny of parent plants with heterotic combiningability, with hybrid corn as one of the most successful commercial examples. Unfortunately, themolecular basis of heterosis is still unproven, and tools for specifically manipulating andincreasing heterotic combining ability are lacking. This proposal is not about heterosis: rather itis focused on a new method of altering the epigenome that produces plants that have heterosislike responses in plants. Specifically, the plants produced by this new method have increased yields and more heat tolerance.Our methods are a new combination of genetics and plant breeding steps that modify the epigenome for improved plant yields. The initial steps are to evaluate several different methods for achieving this, and the subsequent part of the project are to field evaluate the plants produced. The expected benefits are higher yielding plants that are also more heat tolerant. Higher yields imply more efficient use of water to achieve these yields, and water is an increasingly valuable and limited resource. Increased heat tolerance will increase plant yields during more variable and increasing global temperatures.