Lunch Pitch with Sara Westman and Hugo Harlin

Some things in life are simple, while most are not. The same holds true for the genetics of how different characteristics of a species are controlled. In humans, lactose intolerance is controlled by a single gene (you are either tolerant and can enjoy milk or not). In cows, however, milk quality and yield are highly complex traits controlled by a large number of genes. Unfortunately, most traits of biological interest are complex, being controlled by many tens, hundreds or more genes. For these complex traits identifying those genes and understanding how their various combinations contribute to determining a complex trait, such as milk yield, remains an unsolved challenge in biology. A genome contains thousands of genes that are processed into proteins, such as enzymes, that perform functions, producing products such as hormones and antioxidants or directly forming tissues such as muscle. We now have tools to measure these different layers of information (genome, gene, transcript, protein, metabolite, trait) and we know that information flows from one layer to the next.

Needs help with: While biologists have put much effort into studying the details of each layer, we are not yet good at discovering how information flows between the layers – and this is the challenge that we are facing in our current research project. We are studying different aspen trees that produce many defense chemicals to protect against insects and mammals (for example, they taste bitter to moose and beavers). We know that these chemicals are produced by enzymes and that genes in the genome contain the instructions for producing those enzymes. We have identified and measured the activity of all genes and all of the defense chemicals but we cannot yet connect the two together. This is the challenge we are aiming to solve and where we need your help, input, ideas and inspiration. The answer is in the data but remains frustrating inaccessible. So, if you want to know how to make a super tall human, a cow with tasty milk or trees that taste bad to moose help us to solve this mystery!