International Research Fellowship Program: The Effect of Environmental Stresses on the Structure and Function of Arabidopsis Telomeres

沃森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。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持J. Matthew沃森博士与Karel Riha博士在维也纳的Gregor Mendel分子植物生物学研究所进行为期24个月的研究。奥地利：预计全球气候变化将对世界生物体提出挑战，使其环境出现新的极端情况。植物由于无法离开当前的环境，必须适应新的极端环境，否则就会死亡。许多研究已经证实了植物对气候变化的反应能力，无论是在短期内通过生理变化，还是通过遗传和表观遗传变化的适应。基因重排的一个主要障碍是端粒，真核生物染色体的物理末端。端粒有助于克服末端复制问题，并防止染色体末端被识别为DNA双链断裂。与年龄匹配的对照组相比，人类非生物应激的增加与端粒总长度的减少有关，这表明应激的增加可能会消除端粒保护染色体末端的能力。此外，预测为应对全球变暖而发生的极端环境已被证明会破坏端粒功能。申请人假设，拟南芥长期暴露于一些被认为是由全球变暖引起的胁迫将导致端粒结构的变化和端粒功能的废除。功能丧失将通过端粒重组的增加和端粒融合数量的增加来证明，从而导致基因组不稳定性。一个由七个实验室组成的联盟正在开始系统地研究拟南芥在急性和慢性应激下发生的遗传和表观遗传变化。作为这项研究的一小部分，这些压力对端粒的影响将与植物基因组和表观基因组的全球变化相结合，最终目标是确定从压力反应到端粒功能障碍的分子途径。

0700946WatsonThe 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. J. Matthew Watson to work with Dr. Karel Riha at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, in Vienna, Austria.Global climactic change is expected to challenge the world's organisms with new extremes in their environments. Plants, because of their inability to leave their current environment, must adapt to their new environmental extremes or die. Many studies have borne out the abilities of plants to respond to changes in climate, both in the short-term by physiological changes but also through adaptation by genetic and epigenetic changes. A major barrier to genetic rearrangements is telomeres, the physical ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomeres serve to overcome the end-replication problem, and prevent the chromosome ends from being recognized as DNA double strand breaks. Increases in abiotic stress in humans have been linked to a decrease in the total length of the telomere when compared with age-matched controls, suggesting that an increase in stress may abrogate the ability of telomeres to protect the end of the chromosome. Furthermore, the environmental extremes predicted to occur in response to global warming have been shown to disrupt telomere function. The applicant hypothesizes that chronic exposure of Arabidopsis thaliana to some of the stresses proposed to be caused by global warming will result in changes in telomere structure and abrogation of telomere function. Loss of function will be evidenced by an increase in telomere recombination and an increase in the number of telomere fusions, leading to genomic instability. A seven lab consortium is beginning a systematic study of the genetic and epigenetic changes that occur in Arabidopsis in response to acute and chronic stress. As a small part of this study, the effect of these stressors on telomeres will be integrated with global changes in the plant's genome and epigenome, with the eventual goal of determining the molecular pathways that lead from stress response to telomere dysfunction.