Key Research

Features and Importance

The flowering mechanism and flower development of orchids are very different from other ordinary plants. It is not only by sequencing the specific orchid genome can be clarified. To further accurately apply gene functions to commercial strains, the correlation between appearance traits and gene functions should be verified. Our team has been conducting research on the function of orchid genes for a long time. Furthermore, we combined with orchid morphology and cultivation experts, biological gene information analysis laboratory and professional orchid farms to construct a technical platform for improving the orchid strains on the market. The best advantage of Taiwan Orchid in the international market lies in its rich species and diversified flower types. Our team will develop improved technologies that are different from traditional breeding. Through the selection of important genes and the establishment of a functional analysis platform, it will help the orchid industry to quickly screen the traits with economic value to cope with the rapid changes in the orchid market and consolidate the international competitiveness of the orchid industry.

Features and Importance

Because the low transgenic efficiency of orchids, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) carried out by Cymbidium mosaic virus (CymMV) becomes a powerful tool to explore the gene function of orchids in the reproductive stage. Previously, we generated a transient protein expression system using the CymMV, which successfully expressed the core betalain biosynthetic enzymes and increased the flower color diversity in Phalaenopsis. In addition, we successfully unlocked the secret of growth patterns of monopodial and sympodial orchids using the phytoplasma effector. In this subproject, a CymMV-mediated delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 system will be developed to express virus-mediated single-guide RNA (sgRNA) for gene editing and gene regulation in orchids. At the same time, a TALEN-based gene regulation system will be generated to express multiple genes in orchids for synthetic biology purpose in cooperation with Prof. Sylvestre Marillonnet. We expect that the establishment of the multiple functional analysis platforms can overcome the difficulties in functional genomics studies of orchids and promote the development of orchid industry.

Features and Importance

This research will establish an orchid genome and proteome bioinformatics analysis platform, provide systematic analysis, screen out key genes that regulate essential functions and important traits, and provide experimental verification and research integration. In addition, the hybrid breeding of Phalaenopsis is currently the mainstream, but these experiences are not easy to pass on. In recent years, the field of artificial intelligence has made great strides in both software and hardware. The team will develop a method different from traditional artificial breeding; in addition to collecting the lineage information and photos of Phalaenopsis from all over the world, we are also cooperating with local professional orchid farms in Taiwan to establish a big data intelligent breeding database containing photos and trait information of Taiwan Phalaenopsis orchid parents and offspring. Then artificial intelligence technology is utilized to establish a breeding prediction model to assist the Phalaenopsis orchid industry in quickly screening out seed and pollen parents that meet the breeding goals. This approach will reduce hybridization experiments and speed up the time for cultivating varieties with high economic value to respond to the rapid changes in the Phalaenopsis international market and strengthen industrial competitiveness.

Features and Importance

To identify the key genes regulating the Phalaenopsis flower shape and color, gene transformation or editing technology shall be used for the functional studying of the target genes on Phalaenopsis because of the complex genome. Agrobacterium gene transformation of Phalaenopsis takes a long time and the efficiency is low. To understand the function of target genes in Phalaenopsis flower shape or flower color in an efficient way, the Phalaenopsis variety which can be flowering in a bottle was chosen as a material. The RNA and functional protein required for gene editing will be carried and introduced into Phalaenopsis material by using gene gun and carbon nanotubes. The gene-editing Phalaenopsis plants can be directly screened and the Phalaenopsis gene editing platform can be established. The Phalaenopsis gene editing platform will be able to analyze the function of genes regulating important traits of orchids efficiently. The orchid with high economic value traits could be cultivated efficiently, and the international competitiveness of the orchid kingdom could be consolidated.

Features and Importance

About two thirds of crop production are routinely lost to adverse environment due to the global extreme environmental changes.  Drought, flooding and salinity are three major environmental stresses.  It has become a major challenge in the 21st Century to use less arable land, water resources, farm labor and energy to produce sufficient food for feeding the rapidly growing population.  Since rice is the staple food for half of the world population, one of the key research objectives is to apply advanced agricultural biotechnologies and AI-based precision monitoring systems for generating new rice cultivars capable of stress tolerance, reducing use of irrigation water and fertilizers, but still maintaining high yield. Our research team facilitates the collaborations among local experts, biotech industries and international institutions in conducting advanced rice functional genomic research. Newly developed genome editing technologies will be employed to establish a platform for molecular breeding in generating unique rice cultivars more adaptive to global environmental changes. We will also apply precision environmental surveillance systems to maintain consistent quantity and quality of rice production in the field, which is fundamentally important for establishing sustainable agriculture in Taiwan.

Features and Importance

Projections of the United Nations show that the world population will grow to nearly 10 billion people by 2050. Among the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals for a better future for all (https://sdgs.un.org/goals) are zero hunger (SDG2) and good health and well-being (SDG3) two key challenges. Major crops such as maize, wheat, rice, cassava, and potatoes are rich in starch and together they provide more than 85% of the carbohydrate calories consumed worldwide. People for whom these crops are the primary staple food receive enough calories, but they are often malnourished because the seeds, tubers and roots of these plants do not contain enough of the necessary vitamins and minerals such as iron for a healthy diet. For example, 1.6 billion people worldwide suffer reduced productive capacity due to iron-deficiency anemia, which ranks number 9 among 26 risk factors included in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, and accounts for 841,000 deaths and >35 Mio. disability-adjusted life years lost. Achieving higher micronutrient and starch content for health and nutrition is often not possible with available breeding germplasm, especially in rice and clonally propagated crops such as cassava. We have made the case for crop biofortification for human health using varies strategies for micronutrient improvement that cannot be achieved by breeding. Based on the extensive knowledge and expertise of the team and in cooperation with international partners, we employ genetic engineering and CRISPR-Cas9 genome strategies to increase micronutrient and vitamin content of rice and increase starch production and storage root yield of cassava.

Features and Importance

Global warming and climate change have caused the rise of weather extremes. Severe drought and soil salinization occurrences increase as a result of rising temperatures. Economical important crop productions and plant growth and development are hindered when facing various abiotic stresses, such as drought and salt stresses. Using plant endophytic bacteria to promote plant growth and increase tolerance of various environmental stresses has provided an alternative and less safety concerns approach. Plant endophytic bacteria can have plant hormone production, siderophores synthesis, or phosphate solubilization abilities to help host plants obtain more nutrients and improve plant growth under normal and stressed environments. The aim of this project is to isolate more plant endophytes from coastal plants grown in arid and salty environments, and examine their abilities to increase plant growth and stress tolerance in Arabidopsis plants and other crops. We will further investigate the molecular mechanism of growth promotion abilities of these plant endophytes via multi-omics approaches, including genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics.

Features and Importance

Taiwan has become an aging society, and is expected to become a super-aged society by 2025. Unhealthy lifestyle habits lead to metabolic syndrome, making cardiovascular disease become one of the leading causes of death in the elderly population. Simultaneously, with aging and external environmental stimulation, the immune system will be weakened. It might cause the changes or disorders in the composition and function of the gut microbiota, and also deteriorating skin function. In light of it, improving the problems by diet and health care is the primary issue to solve the impact of population aging. Therefore, utilizing biotechnology to apply local characteristic agricultural products and high-value edible and medicinal plants is a key research project of Taiwan's biotechnology industry development policy. This sub-project strengthens the national health of Taiwan and promotes the development of related industrial research through preventive medicine and anti-aging healthcare systems. This plan will cultivate biotechnology industry talents, agricultural product value-added development and R&D talents, value-added domestic characteristic agricultural products, and assist in policy promotion and other multifaceted benefits.

Features and Importance

In this study, native Taiwanese pine leaves were used to screen the biological activity of natural products and assess their viability as immunomodulatory functional foods. The dysregulation of peptidylarginine deiminases in humans is linked to the development of autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis. We found that the extracts and sub-extracts of Taiwanese pine leaves inhibit the activity of human peptidylarginine deiminase 4, possess anti-arthritic effects, and are not significantly toxic to mice. Therefore, we hypothesize that pine leaf subextracts have the ability to effectively reduce joint inflammation in mice, which may result from the inhibition of the human peptidylarginine deiminase family's activity. The activity of peptidylarginine deiminase is also associated with the development of psoriasis. In this study, the extracts and subextracts of Taiwanese pine leaves will also be utilized to determine whether or not psoriasis symptoms can be alleviated. We hoped to identify the active key components of Taiwanese pine leaves extract that inhibit the human arginine deiminase family and clarify its molecular mechanism against rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis. Finally, immunomodulatory functional foods and new plant-based medications can be successfully developed.

Features and Importance

The strategy against plant disease begins with the identification of plant pathogens. Therefore, the establishment of a fast, accurate and simple "quarantine" method can identify plant diseases and insect pests in time, prevent the spread of diseases, reduce agricultural damage, and prevent diseases from recurring. With a new diagnostic method, combined with data management and database establishment, we developed an intelligent detection platform; including (1) plasmon- enhanced spectra nano-chip 3D-PHS; (2) spectrometer or fluorescent indicator; (3) molecular barcode and database construction. This platform can detect Raman or fluorescence signal from the analyte with high detection limit, and then achieve the early detection and verification before naked eye. This platform can not only prevent crop diseases and insect pests early, but also can be applied to the screening of crop seedlings. This project will detect signals for plant viruses and bacterial strains, and then establish a molecular database (Barcode barcode) according basing on their molecular barcodes.

Features and Importance

This subproject aims to gain a better understanding of plant and microbe interactions, specifically focusing on functional analysis of pathogen genes required for pathogenesis and plant genes involved in defense. The proposal will identify resistant or susceptible genes of plants in a hope to explore their functions in disease management. We propose to utilize CRISPR to assist plant breeding for resistant cultivars. We will also evaluate the effectiveness of spray-induced gene silencing for controlling fungal pathogens. Understanding how fungal pathogens regulate and detoxify toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS), maintain intracellular iron homeostasis, energy, autophagy, and ferroptosis will allow us to identify the weakness of pathogens, which could be targeted by novel fungicides in the future. This subproject will enhance the strategies used for plant disease control.

Features and Importance

In the previous studies, we screened the differentially expressed genes after virus infection and inspected these genes involved in virus accumulation by knockdown and over-expression. Among these genes, some genes were related to the replication of the virus, and some genes were associated to the movement of the virus within or between cells. This project intends to study the host genes involved in virus movement and understand the role of these genes in virus movement. Then we can further strengthen those genes with defensive roles and weaken those with the assistant roles. This project intends to understand the transport mode of viruses in cells and also to analyze the material transport mechanism between organelles in plant cells, which is of great significance to plant cell physiology.

Features and Importance

    特色與重要性    Papaya, passionfruit, and muskmelon are important crops with high economic value in Taiwan.  However, insect-born virus diseases limit their production.  Resistance breeding is time-consuming and relies on the availability of natural resistance sources.  Virus resistance derived from transgenic crops is not encouraged in Taiwan.  Netting facilities for cultivation are expensive but not effective in preventing tiny virus vectors of whitefly and thrip. Therefore, control by cross protection has become an essential strategy for the control of insect-borne virus diseases.  However, natural-occurred mild viruses are rare and strain-specificity of protection hamper the application of cross protection.  In this study, we attempt to develop efficient platforms for the prompt generation of plant mild viruses feasible for the control of viral diseases by cross protection.  A mild virus biobank will be established by the selection of non-HR mutants tagged with GFP from the local lesion host quinoa leaves after nitrous acid induction.  Alternatively, the modification of the silencing suppressor will be conducted to knock off the pathogenicity of a potyvirus.  The feasible mild virus obtained will be further constructed to carry a heterologous gene to become a bivalent or multivalent vaccine concurrently against unrelated virus species.  Furthermore, the combination of different mild viruses to generate broad resistance to multiple viruses will be tested.  Here we aim to develop novel strategies for the generation of monovalent or polyvalent plant viral vaccines concurrently against different essential virus diseases of papaya, passionfruit, and melon.