Arabidopsis 2010:The Arabidopsis RPM1 Signaling Network: A paradigm for NBS-LRR mediated plant disease resistance.

智力优势：感染会降低植物的生产力。许多病原体造成了植物收成的损失。病原体造成的总产量损失可能高达30%。植物进化出了一种与人类等动物截然不同的免疫系统。这主要是因为植物没有循环细胞，而不是像人类这样的动物。参考植物拟南芥是剖析植物免疫系统分子机制的一个很好的实验系统。这个拟南芥2010项目使用多学科方法来确定植物免疫系统中基因网络的功能。正在讨论的网络包括富亮氨酸重复核苷酸结合位点(NB-LRR)类抗病蛋白的成员，以及调节其功能的其他蛋白质。Nb-LRR蛋白在植物免疫系统中起着关键作用。该项目结合了基因组学、遗传学、细胞生物学和生物化学，以了解NB-LRR蛋白在感染前是如何组装成信号活性形式的，以及它们的作用是如何被植物病原菌产生的蛋白质触发的。对拟南芥中Nb-LRR蛋白的研究导致了这样的概念，即它们的部分活动被引导到监控其他宿主细胞机的细胞完整性。这项建议还关注这些重要的细胞成分之一，RIN4蛋白。RIN4与其他几种拟南芥蛋白共享一个功能未知的植物特有的小结构域，称为NOI。这个植物特有的蛋白质家族也将被研究。更广泛的影响：拟南芥研究带来了我们目前对植物免疫系统的理解，这些开创性的发现已经并将继续扩展到作物物种研究中。因此，拟南芥的研究对于几乎所有与农艺相关的病原菌的研究都是有用的。因此，这项研究项目的更广泛的影响是，结果将显著地为作物物种的转化提供信息。事实上，这已经开始于从最初在拟南芥中发现的作物中克隆和利用相关基因。遗传学、分子生物学、生物化学和细胞生物学的使用使这个项目成为从本科生到博士后水平的科学家的极好的培训基地。本研究项目中所研究的课题被纳入了由该研究所教授的一门课程“宿主-微生物相互作用的策略”。国际和平研究所的实验室积极寻求让本科生参与研究项目，并参与与本研究主题直接相关的公共政策和公共辩论。

Intellectual merit: Plant productivity is reduced by infection. Many pathogens contribute to loss of plant harvest. Overall yield losses to pathogens can be as high as 30%. Plants have evolved an immune system that is very different from animals like humans. This is mostly driven by the fact that plants have no circulating cells, in contrast to animals like humans. The reference plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, is an excellent experimental system for dissection of the molecular machinery of the plant immune system. This Arabidopsis 2010 project uses a multidisciplinary approach to determine the function for a network genes in the plant immune system. The network in question includes members of the Nucleotide Binding site-Leucine-Rich-Repeat (NB-LRR) class of disease resistance proteins, and additional proteins that regulate their function. The NB-LRR proteins are the key players in the plant immune system. This project combines genomics, genetics, cell biology and biochemistry to understand how NB-LRR proteins are assembled into signal competent form before infection, and how their action is triggered by proteins produced by plant pathogens. The study of NB-LRR proteins in Arabidopsis has led to the notion that part of their activity is guided toward monitoring the cellular integrity of other host cellular machines. This proposal focuses also one of those important cellular components, the RIN4 protein. RIN4 shares a small plant-specific domain of unknown function, called NOI, with several other Arabidopsis proteins. This plant-specific protein family will also be studied. Broader impacts: Arabidopsis research has led to our current understanding of the plant immune system, and these seminal findings have, and will continue to be, expanded into crop species research. Therefore, Arabidopsis research is useful for studies of nearly all classes of pathogens that are agronomically relevant. Hence, the broader impacts of this research project are that the results will significantly inform translation to crop species. In fact, this has already begun with the cloning and utilization of the relevant genes from crops that were first identified in Arabidopsis. The use of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology makes this project an excellent training ground for scientists from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels. Topics investigated in this research project are incorporated into a course taught by the PI on "Strategies of Host-Microbe Interactions". The PI's lab has actively sought to engage undergraduates in research projects and the PI is involved in public policy and public debates directly related to the topics of this research.