This collaborative and interdisciplinary project is focused on understanding the biosynthetic pathways and genetic networks responsible for the accumulation of surface lipids on aerial portions of land plants. These surface lipids provide a hydrophobic layer that is a primary line of defense against numerous biological and environmental stresses. We are using the surface lipid metabolome on the silks of maize as the model to study how the organism adapts and protects plant surfaces from abiotic and biotic stresses, which has downstream applications in applied breeding of crops for customized lipid compositions that protect against many stresses.  

The Maize Surface Lipid Project integrates genetic, metabolomic, computational and entomological approaches across a premier resource developed by the maize community, a series of intermated B73xMo17 (IBM) mapping populations. We are utilizing these genetically characterized IBM isolines that exhibit diverse surface lipid  metabolomes to address three hypotheses:

1. The synthesis of surface lipids is governed by complex genetic and metabolic networks.
2. Particular silk surface lipid metabolomes confer protection against abiotic stresses (e.g. water availability) encountered by aerial portions of plants.
3.  Particular silk surface lipid metabolomes confer protection against biotic stresses (e.g. insect feeding). 

Funding Organization: National Science Foundation- Integrative Organismal Systems

Duration: 2014-04-15 to 2018-04-14

Award Number: 1354799