Plant Energy Metabolism and Carbon/Nitrogen Assimilation

“这项奖励是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”植物收集的太阳能为植物组织内的主要代谢途径（如光合作用、光呼吸、呼吸和氮同化）提供所需的能量。尽管这些代谢过程很重要，但对植物碳氮同化如何与植物能量代谢相互作用的了解还存在很大的空白。低氮利用率是限制光合生产力的主要因素之一，目前农业系统仅靠大量的氮基化学投入来维持。这些投入物的过度施用和随后的径流导致了严重的环境退化，这些氮基肥料的生产释放了大量温室气体，导致进一步的环境变化。因此，了解控制碳氮同化的机制以及变化的气候条件如何影响这些过程对于预测光合生物对气候变化以及未来食物和能源供应的反馈作用至关重要。反向遗传学、叶片气体交换、养分吸收/饲养实验和质谱测量将用于了解叶片代谢关键步骤的中断如何影响这些代谢过程之间的能量流动协调。将向高中、本科生、研究生和博士后讲授植物生物学的综合方法，拓宽他们在科学研究中的训练和学习机会。此外，华盛顿州立大学（WSU）和当地高中之间将建立新的伙伴关系，为年轻学生提供更多的机会，在他们的教育培训早期接触科学过程。研究人员的目标是通过大学项目，为华盛顿州立大学少数民族和女性提供研究机会，提高代表性不足的本科生和研究生在实验室的参与度。此外，将开发网站，向更广泛的受众展示这项研究的结果。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." Solar energy harvested by plants provides the energy required for the major metabolic pathways within plant tissue (e.g. photosynthesis, photorespiration, respiration and nitrogen assimilation). Despite the importance of these metabolic processes, there are large gaps of understanding in how plant carbon and nitrogen assimilation interact with plant energy metabolism. Low nitrogen availability is one of the major factors limiting photosynthetic productivity and agricultural systems are currently sustained only by enormous nitrogen based chemical inputs. The over-application and ensuing runoff of these inputs leads to significant environmental degradation, and the production of these nitrogen based fertilizers releases vast amounts of greenhouse gases leading to further environmental change. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms controlling carbon and nitrogen assimilation and how changing climatic conditions will influence these processes is essential for predicting the feedback effects of photosynthetic organisms on climate change as well as future food and energy supplies. Reverse genetics, leaf gas exchange, nutrient uptake/feeding experiments, and mass spectrometry measurements will be used to understand how disruptions of key steps in leaf metabolism influence the coordination of energy flow between these metabolic processes. High school, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students will be taught integrative approaches to plant biology, broadening their training and learning opportunities in scientific research. Additionally, new partnerships between Washington State University (WSU) and local high schools will be formed, providing young students with greater access to the scientific process early in their educational training. The investigators aim to increase the participation of underrepresented undergraduates and graduate students in the laboratory through university programs promoting research opportunities for under-represented minorities and women at WSU. Additionally, websites will be developed to present the outcomes of this research to a broader audience.