CAREER: Biochemical, Molecular and Physiological Analysis of Plant Ribosome Inactivating Proteins

在他在科罗拉多州立大学(CSU)的整个职业生涯中，Vivanco博士将把植物生物学教育和研究结合起来，使两者互惠互利，并将通过社区外展活动来推动CSU的土地批出使命。维万科博士项目的长期研究目标是了解植物核糖体失活蛋白(RIP‘s)的生物学。这一知识可用于开发提高马铃薯等作物的广谱病原菌抗性的策略。这些策略包括促进RIP掺入的强化育种计划，使用RIP表达的化学或生物激发子，以及转基因技术。虽然人们已经做了很多工作来剖析RIP的酶和抗病毒机制，但对这些蛋白在植物中的抗真菌活性和生物学作用知之甚少。从紫薇中提取的根特定的RIP将被用于研究这些著名的特性。RIP可能在与抗病和耐受相关的过程中发挥作用，如细胞特异性超敏反应和病原体诱导的细胞死亡。此外，这些蛋白质可能参与植物生长和发育的许多阶段，因此它们在地下器官中的作用将被研究。由于模式植物如烟草的分子和基因组技术，在这些植物中分离RIP基因将为确定RIP在抗病级联中的特定作用和鉴定这些蛋白质的新的生理功能提供工具。最后，某些RIP的酶活性将针对类病毒提供新的控制策略。除了在植物中学习RIP，Vivanco博士还将把创新的课程和教育技术引入课堂，并将继续将本科生纳入他的项目。通过这个项目，他还将致力于增加从事植物生物学工作的少数族裔人数，并教育公立学校的学生和教师了解植物的奇妙之处。

Throughout his career at Colorado State University (CSU), Dr. Vivanco will integrate plant biology education and research to the mutual benefit of both endeavors and will further the land-grant mission of CSU with community outreach activities. The long-term research goal of Dr. Vivanco's program is to understand the biology of plant Ribosome-Inactivating Proteins (RIP's). This knowledge can be used to develop strategies to increase broad-spectrum pathogen resistance in crops such as potato. Such strategies include enhanced breeding programs that promote RIP incorporation, the use of chemical or biological elicitors of RIP expression, and transgenic technology. Although much work has been done to dissect the enzymatic and antiviral mechanisms of RIP's, relatively little is known about the antifungal activity and biology of these proteins in plants. Root-specific RIP's from Mirabilis expansa will be used to study these reputed properties. RIP's may function in processes associated with disease resistance and tolerance, such as cell-specific hypersensitive responses and pathogen-induced cell death. Furthermore, these proteins are likely to be involved at many stages of plant growth and development, and thus their role in the underground organ will be studied. Because of the molecular and genomic technologies available for model plants such as tobacco, the isolation of RIP genes in these plants will provide the tools to determine the specific roles of RIP's in the disease resistance cascade and to identify novel physiological functions for these proteins. Finally, the enzymatic activity of certain RIP's will be targeted against viroids to provide novel control strategies. In addition to studying RIP's in plants, Dr. Vivanco will introduce innovative courses and education techniques into the classroom and will continue to integrate undergraduates into his program. Through this project he will also work to increase the number of underrepresented minorities working in plant biology and to educate public school students and teachers about the wonders of plants.