Collaborative Research: RUI: The Role of Oligopeptide Transporters in Germinating Rice Seeds

植物种子的成功萌发依赖于从储藏到正在生长的胚胎中的营养物质的调动。寡肽转运蛋白是一种驻留在细胞膜上并将小蛋白转运到细胞内的蛋白质。本研究的中心问题是确定特定的寡肽转运蛋白是否在水稻种子萌发过程中发挥关键作用，它可以高效、快速地将氨基酸从贮藏储备中卸载到胚胎中，以合成蛋白质。生物化学和分子技术的结合将被用来确定每个单独的寡肽转运蛋白在萌发种子中的位置，确定每个转运蛋白动员的小蛋白的子集，并阐明每个转运蛋白在萌发过程中是如何被激活的。这种方法将通过确定寡肽转运体运输什么、运输到哪里以及如何激活来确定寡肽转运体在种子萌发中所起的作用。这项工作的更广泛影响是，它有可能通过增加我们对氨基酸卸载的理解来影响植物繁殖成功，并可能促进未来谷类作物的育种实践和转基因技术。此外，这项研究将有大量的培训部分，因为大部分工作将由在圣迈克尔学院、田纳西大学和斯塔滕岛纽约城市大学工作的本科生研究人员完成。

Successful seed germination in plants relies upon the mobilization of nutrients from storage reserves to the growing embryo. Oligopeptide Transporters are proteins that reside in cell membranes and translocate small proteins into cells. The central question of this study is to determine if specific Oligopeptide Transporters play a key role in rice seed germination by unloading amino acids efficiently and rapidly from storage reserves to the embryo for protein synthesis. A combination of biochemical and molecular techniques will be used to ascertain where each individual Oligopeptide Transporter is located in the germinating seed, to determine the subset of small proteins that each transporter mobilizes, and to elucidate how each transporter is activated during germination. This approach will identify the contribution that Oligopeptide Transporters play in seed germination by identifying what each transports, where it transports, and how it is activated. The broader impact of this work is that it has the potential to affect plant reproductive success through increasing our understanding of amino acid unloading and could enhance future breeding practices and transgenic technologies in cereal crops. Furthermore, this study will have a large training component since the majority of the work will be completed by undergraduate researchers working at Saint Michael's College, the University of Tennessee, and City University of New York at Staten Island.