Molecular Genetic Analysis of Ethylene Insensitive Loci in Arabidopsis

植物如何感知和传递激素信号是生物学中的一个基本问题，也具有重要的实际应用。对乙烯气体的反应是理解植物激素信号转导的范例。 乙烯在发育（如果实成熟）和对各种物理和生物胁迫（如病原体攻击）的反应中起着关键作用。这些乙烯的各种角色的理解正在解决使用遗传，分子和生物化学方法在拟南芥。特别是，这个项目的目标是表征功能的EIN 3/EIL家族的植物特异性DNA结合蛋白在乙烯介导的转录调控。 EIN 3编码DNA结合转录激活蛋白，并且是EIN 3-LIKE（EIL 1、EIL 2、EIL 3、EIL 4、EIL 5）蛋白的小基因家族的成员。EIN 3/EIL蛋白沿着另一种称为ERF 1的转录激活因子，参与了一种鲜为人知的转录调控级联反应。本项目将研究EIN 3/EIL蛋白的活性是如何被乙烯调节的，并探索这些蛋白在介导乙烯信号传导到各种下游反应中的作用。特别是，翻译后修饰的可能性（S），蛋白质稳定性的变化或改变EIN 3/EIL蛋白质的亚细胞定位在乙烯的反应将被检查。此外，生物化学和遗传学的方法将被用来确定EIN 3/EIL相互作用蛋白。个别EIL 1，EIL 2，EIL 3，EIL 4和EIL 5功能丧失突变体，各种多突变体组合和异位表达这些基因的分析将提供显着的新的洞察这些基因在下游乙烯反应的可能功能。此外，将分别使用定制基因表达和全基因组拼接阵列进行EIN 3/EIL基因表达和体内靶点鉴定的全基因组研究。 EIN 3/EIL乙烯信号通路基因的鉴定和表征以及它们与其他信号通路组分的相互作用的分析将为简单烃乙烯的巨大多样性的生物学影响提供新的见解。此外，了解这些蛋白质的功能将允许改变乙烯在任何植物，特别是具有重要经济或社会价值的作物中的有益和/或有害影响的能力。

How plants perceive and transduce hormone signals is a fundamental question in biology that also has important practical applications. The response to ethylene gas serves as a paradigm for understanding of plant hormone signal transduction. Ethylene plays critical roles in development (such as in the ripening of fruits) and in responses to a variety of physical and biological stresses (such as pathogen attack). Understanding of these various roles of ethylene are being addressed using genetic, molecular and biochemical approaches in Arabidopsis. In particular, the goal of this project is to characterize the functions of the EIN3/EIL family of plant specific DNA-binding proteins in ethylene-mediated transcriptional regulation. EIN3 encodes a DNA-binding transcriptional activator protein and is a member of a small gene family of EIN3-LIKE (EIL1, EIL2, EIL3, EIL4, EIL5) proteins. Along with another transcription activator called ERF1, the EIN3/EIL proteins participate in a little understood transcriptional regulatory cascade. This project will investigate how the activities of the EIN3/EIL proteins are modulated by ethylene and also explore the roles of these proteins in mediating ethylene signaling to the various downstream responses. In particular, the possibility of posttranslational modification(s), changes in protein stability or alterations in the subcellular localization of EIN3/EIL proteins in response to ethylene will be examined. In addition, biochemical and genetic approaches will be employed to identify EIN3/EIL interacting proteins. Analysis of individual EIL1,EIL2, EIL3, EIL4, and EIL5 loss-of-function mutants, various multiple mutant combinations and ectopic expression of these genes will provide significant new insight into the possible functions of these genes in downstream responses to ethylene. In addition, genome-wide studies of EIN3/EIL gene expression and in vivo target identification will be conducted using custom gene expression and whole genome tiling arrays, respectively. Identification and characterization of the EIN3/EIL ethylene signaling pathway genes and analysis of their interactions with other signaling pathway components will provide new insights into tremendous diversity of biological affects of the simple hydrocarbon, ethylene. Moreover, understanding of the functions of these proteins will allow the ability to modify the beneficial and/or detrimental effects of ethylene in any plant, in particular, crops with important economic or social value.