Dr.Inam Jameel, a postdoctoral evolutionary ecologist in the Gina Baucom lab, is growing mutant morning glories here in the greenhouses at Matthaei Botanical Gardens. The Morning Glory family, Ipomoea, contains sweet potatoes, moonflower, and the common morning glory.  Growing as trailing vines, many species are classified as noxious weeds. The researchers aim to develop genomic resources with implications for plant life under global change, herbicide resistance, and crop selection. 

If the word mutant makes you think of comic book superpowers, Jameel breaks it down. “So we mutagenize the seeds, and then see what the plants look like, and then sequence the genome, to understand genes that may underlie those weird mutants.” To create the mutant seeds to grow these plants, the researchers employ a process called fast neutron bombardment. The seeds are hit with high-energy neutrons, resulting in random insertions and deletions in the genome to create genetically changed lines. 

Put even simpler, “we screw up a lot of stuff, and then we can see, based on what we screw up, what genes are underlying it.”   Jameel describes the plant genomes as little black boxes,  impossible to fully decipher without advanced experimental techniques. Mutagenesis helps to better understand what is going on inside. “Here at the Botanical Gardens, we are using this space to grow some genetic lines and start phenotyping, or measuring the traits that we are interested in,” Jameel explains. 

These mutant lines help the researchers to better understand the genetic basis of traits like floral size, anther-stigma distance, and leaf number. “These traits are known as quantitative traits, and they're something that actually has relevance to understanding how plant populations respond to global change.”  The results of this work can help researchers better predict herbicide resistance and the adaptability of weeds to future climate change factors.“Plasticity is the ability of trait values to change depending on the environmental context, which could be helpful for a plant if temperatures increase or there is less water availability. So, are there certain weeds that are herbicide-resistant? Do they still have a lot of genetic variation to continue to adapt to climate change? Do they have enough plasticity in traits that are relevant to global change?” These are just some of the questions Jameel is thinking about with this work. Further, this work will aid in understanding the genetic basis of traits and the potential for crop improvement through mutagenesis. 

Preliminary results suggest that higher irradiation levels increase trait variation. And a fun preliminary observation? One morning glory line has curly trichomes, the small hair-like structures that protect the plant from herbivory. Instead of straight trichomes, the mutant line has trichomes that look like ribbons, twisting and curling, implying a disruption of a gene related to trichome development.

Jameel and his team just wrapped up a large greenhouse experiment with 900 morning glory plants. Now, the team is headed up to the campus farm. In experimental plots, they will conduct field experiments to compare mutagenized lines with natural populations, aiming to understand genetic variation and plasticity in weeds under future climate change scenarios. Weeds aren’t just a nuisance- they cost the agricultural sector billions of dollars each year and pose a threat to the future of agriculture. Jameel explains, “Weeds are something we have to factor into the future of agriculture. It's not just about adding more fertilizer, more pesticides, spraying more herbicides. We have to think more broadly in terms of how they (weeds) have the potential to disrupt agriculture.”