The Role of Dehydration-Induced Proteins in Plants

水在植物生长的各个阶段都很重要。缺乏足够的水分会对植物造成压力，这可能导致产量下降或对疾病的易感性增加。然而，植物不仅能在陆地上生存，而且还能在陆地上繁殖，甚至在半干旱地区和沙漠等缺水的环境中也是如此。这种能够忍受看似不适宜居住的环境的非凡能力是由于存在于植物内部的许多适应性特性的累积效应。在有种子的植物中，这种适应性最好的例子就是种子本身，它经常在相对干燥的状态下存活多年。过去十年的研究表明，植物生长和干种子内的胚胎（或胚芽）在细胞和生化水平上有许多共同之处。例如，在水分限制期间，植物生长细胞内积累的某些蛋白质在胚胎细胞正常成熟干燥过程中也存在。脱氢蛋白就是这样一类蛋白质，也是本研究项目的重点。这个项目将解决的基本问题是脱水剂在适应细胞脱水中起什么作用。将确定植物细胞中脱氢蛋白的位置，并对从植物细胞中提取的脱氢蛋白进行功能的blochemical测试。此外，将在正常和突变植物中检测脱氢基因。通过对脱水剂的基本生化作用和遗传学的了解，从长远来看，有可能设计出新的策略来开发具有更好的环境胁迫耐受性的植物。

Water is important to plants during all stages of development. The lack of sufficient water can place strains on plants, which may result in decreased yields or increased susceptibility to disease. Yet plants not only survive but proliferate on land, even in water- limited environments such as semi-arid areas and deserts. This remarkable ability to tolerate seemingly inhospitable conditions is due to the cumulative effects of nmerous adaptive properties that exist within plants. In seed-bearing plants the best example of such adaptability is the seed itself, which often remains alive in a relatively dry state for many years. Studies over the last decade have demonstrated that growing plants and the embryos (or germ) within dry seeds have much in common at the cellular and biochemical level. For example, certain proteins that accumulate within the cells of growing plants during water-limitation are also found in embryo cells during their normal maturation drying process. Dehydrins are one such group of proteins and are the focus of this research project. The basic question that will be addressed by this rpoject is what role dehydrins play in adaptation to cellular dehydration. The location of dehydrins within plant cells will be determined, and blochemical tests of function will be carried out on dehydrin protein that has been extracted from plant cells. In addition, dehydrin genes will be examined in normal and mutant plants. Through an understanding of the fundamental biochemical role and genetics of dehydrins, it may be possible in the longer term to design new strategies for the development of plants with improved tolerance to environmental stress.