International Research Fellowship Program: Investigating the Mechanism of Plastidic RNA Import

0602042格拉布国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。该计划的奖项为联合研究提供了机会，并利用国外独特或互补的设施，专业知识和实验条件。该奖项将支持克莱顿道格拉斯格拉布博士与里卡多弗洛雷斯博士在西班牙瓦伦西亚的植物细胞生物学研究所进行为期24个月的研究。该项目的重点是了解叶绿体如何输入RNA。长期以来，RNA一直被认为是DNA中储存的信息转化为功能蛋白质过程中的一个中间体，但它已经成为一种令人惊讶的多功能分子，在信息处理和生物化学催化方面具有各种重要的生物学作用。叶绿体是重要的植物细胞器，参与合成许多人类感兴趣的化合物，包括营养素，维生素和药用化合物。已知这些细胞器输入内源RNA和一些植物病原体如类病毒的基因组RNA。这一进口过程的机制是完全未知的。因此，这一领域的研究可能会产生广泛的科学和实际效益。实验方法测量分离的叶绿体输入类病毒的能力。这种生物化学活性的表征正在推进两个重要目标。首先，它提供了关于进口机制性质的信息，包括其能量需求及其蛋白质成分的特性。其次，结构/活性研究正在精确地确定类病毒的哪些特征允许进口。通过提供对类病毒生命周期关键步骤的第一个机械见解，以及扩展植物细胞生物学的现有知识，该项目将通过帮助对抗类病毒相关植物疾病的努力而使农业受益，并将通过提供操纵叶绿体生物化学的新方法而使科学和生物技术受益。因此，研究结果应在植物病理学和叶绿体生物发生社区的广泛兴趣。

0602042GrubbThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Clayton Douglas Grubb to work with Dr. Ricardo Flores at Instituto de Biologia Molecular y Celular de Plantas, in Valencia, Spain.This project is focused on understanding how chloroplasts import RNA. Long thought of as a mere intermediate in the process by which the information stored in DNA is transformed into functional proteins, RNA has emerged as an amazingly versatile molecule with a variety of important biological roles in both information processing and biochemical catalysis. Chloroplasts are essential plant organelles that participate in the synthesis of many compounds of interest to humans, including nutrients, vitamins and medicinal compounds. These organelles are known to import both endogenous RNAs and the genomic RNAs of some plant pathogens such as viroids. The mechanics of this import process are totally unknown. Research in this area is therefore likely to have broad scientific and practical benefits. The experimental approach measures the ability of isolated chloroplasts to import viroids. Characterization of this biochemical activity is advancing two important goals. First, it is providing information on the nature of the import machinery, including its energetic requirements and the identity of its protein components. Second, structure/activity studies are establishing precisely which features of the viroid allow import. By providing the first mechanistic insights into a key step of the viroid lifecycle, as well as extending current knowledge of plant cell biology, this project will benefit agriculture by aiding efforts to fight viroid-related plant disease, and will benefit science and biotechnology by providing new ways to manipulate chloroplast biochemistry. The findings should therefore be of broad interest in both the plant pathology and chloroplast biogenesis communities.