First Place in Category #4 – Science

STUDENT: Aron M. Tregaskis

PROJECT ADVISOR: Dr. Megan Van Etten

ABSTRACT:

Glyphosate has become one of the most popular herbicides around the world, especially due to the creation of crops that are resistant (Brotherton et al. 2007). However, with this common application of glyphosate, there are concerns that weed species may develop tolerance or resistance (Brotherton et al. 2007). By understanding the means by which tolerance develops in these plants, in terms of genes or metabolic pathways, new methods can be produced to circumvent weed success among glyphosate treated crops. The following analysis used genetic information taken from Ipomoea purpurea plants, with glyphosate resistant and susceptible lines, which included groups of glyphosate sprayed and non-sprayed individuals. When looking at the common genes found with glyphosate resistance, their expressions were not significantly different between non-sprayed and sprayed, along with resistant and susceptible, individuals (p values >0.05); these genes included the following: EPSPS, GCN2, AtPgp1, psbA, Csr-1. However, there were other genes identified to be significantly downregulated and upregulated using an MD plot. These included genes responsible for plant defense responses and responses to stress, which may relate to possible responses in I. purpurea related to glyphosate resistance.  The initial retrieval, and organization, of genetic material from I. purpurea, such as mapping SNP sequences to a transcriptome, was carried out by Dr. Van Etten; this was achieved by growing sprayed plants, with the use of programs such as: LACE, CORSET, tblastx, and Bowtie. The analysis of the collected genetic material was conducted by Aron Tregaskis, which included: determining differential expression, significant expression between genes, and the biological importance of those genes.