Leucine Aminopeptidase: A Regulator of the Late Branch of Wound Signaling

亮氨酸氨肽酶：伤口信号传导晚期分支的调节剂

• 批准号: 0725093
• 负责人: Linda Walling
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: University of California-Riverside
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-15 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0725093&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Leucine; Aminopeptidase; Regulator; Late; Branch

This proposal focuses on understanding the tomato leucyl aminopeptidase A (LapA). LAP controls tomato defenses after wounding and insect feeding. When LAP protein is reduced in transgenic LapA-SI plants, the proteins and chemicals that antagonize insect growth are produced at lower levels. LapA-SI plants incur more damage and tobacco hornworms are larger relative to insects from wild-type plants. In addition, on plants that make excessive amounts of LAP-A protein (LapA-OX), caterpillars consume less foliage and larval masses are reduced. The LapA-OX plants provide an important and new mechanism of insect resistance, since plant stature and fertility are not impaired. Understanding how LAP-A controls tomato defenses will be an important addition to our general knowledge of gene regulation in plants. Goal 1 is to determine the susceptibility or resistance of LapA-SI and LapA-OX plants to insects that use different modes of feeding. If LapA-OX plants provide resistance to many insect species, an important and new mechanism to protect plants from insect pests will have been discovered. Goal 2 is to use genetic, biochemical and plant transformation technologies to determine if the peptidase activity of LAP-A is essential for its role in controlling defenses against insects. This is important since LAPs from other organisms have multiple functions. Finally, Goal 3 is to determine the cellular process that is regulated by LAP-A. A new model that links the many signals that influence wounding in tomato and LAP-A is proposed. This model will be rigorously tested using molecular, biochemical and transgenic plant strategies. By supporting or refuting this model, these experiments will aide in defining the complex and largely unexplored defense network that plants employ against insects. These studies should result in new strategies for engineering an environmentally safe resistance to insects into crops and horticultural plants, benefiting agriculture and society at large. The proposed experiments range from whole organism studies to molecular responses and spans the fields of plant biology and entomology. This research program will provide a unique, interdisciplinary training environment for a graduate and undergraduate students and a postdoctoral fellow.

这项建议的重点是了解番茄亮氨酸氨基肽酶A(LAPA)。LAP控制番茄在受伤和昆虫取食后的防御。当LAP蛋白在转基因LAPA-SI植物中被减少时，抑制昆虫生长的蛋白质和化学物质的产生水平较低。Lapa-SI植物遭受的伤害更大，烟草角虫相对于野生植物的昆虫更大。此外，在产生过量LAP-A蛋白(Lapa-ox)的植物上，毛虫消耗的叶子更少，幼虫的体重也减少。Lapa-ox植物提供了一种重要的新的抗虫机制，因为植物的身高和育性不会受到损害。了解LAP-A如何控制番茄的防御将是我们对植物基因调控的一般知识的重要补充。目标1是确定Lapa-SI和Lapa-ox植物对使用不同取食方式的昆虫的敏感性或抵抗力。如果Lapa-ox植物对许多昆虫物种具有抗性，就会发现一种重要的新机制来保护植物免受害虫的侵害。目标2是利用遗传、生化和植物转化技术来确定LAP-A的肽酶活性是否对其控制昆虫防御的作用至关重要。这一点很重要，因为其他生物体的腿具有多种功能。最后，目标3是确定LAP-A调控的细胞过程。提出了一个新的模型，该模型将影响番茄和LAP-A伤害的多个信号联系起来。这个模型将使用分子、生物化学和转基因植物策略进行严格的测试。通过支持或驳斥这一模型，这些实验将有助于确定植物抵御昆虫的复杂且在很大程度上未被探索的防御网络。这些研究应该产生新的战略，在农作物和园艺植物中设计一种环境安全的抗虫性，使农业和整个社会受益。拟议的实验范围从整体生物体研究到分子反应，横跨植物生物学和昆虫学领域。这一研究计划将为研究生和本科生以及博士后提供一个独特的跨学科培训环境。