CAREER: Understanding Molecular Networks Controlling Plant Glucosinolate Metabolism

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。智力上的优点：植物产生数千种对它们的生长、发展和与环境相互作用至关重要的化学物质。其中许多化学物质，如硫代葡萄糖酸盐，会影响农业实践、人类营养和健康。硫代葡萄糖苷是一类主要的硫代葡萄糖苷，具有多种生物活性，包括对病原体和昆虫的防御。它们存在于重要的Brassica作物以及模式植物拟南芥中，该模式植物将用于拟议的研究。为了改造植物以提高作物质量和产量，创造可再生能源和开发营养食品，至关重要的是确定复杂代谢网络的组织和连接，如参与硫代葡萄糖苷生产的代谢网络。研究小组将使用现代生物工具来了解调控植物硫代谢物的化学网络。该项目预计将确定新的化学成分，包括蛋白质和代谢物，并将它们置于硫代葡萄糖苷代谢的功能范围内。这项研究有望全面了解硫代葡萄糖酸盐代谢的调节和代谢机制，这将有助于开发防御能力更强、质量更好的作物。所采用的方法将为未来其他重要植物途径的网络分析提供技术开发。广泛的影响：除了科学影响外，该项目还将涉及不同水平的学生的多学科培训，以及将当前植物化工厂和现代功能基因组学的知识带到高中课堂。对高中教师和学生的教育和培训将有助于我们的下一代科学家和公民有效地准备掌握尖端生物科学。将为高中生和教师开展功能基因组学教育/培训活动，包括在线功能基因组学资源。该项目产生的大规模数据将为主动学习、批判性思维和解决问题提供极好的材料。因此，更广泛的影响包括促进对基本植物化学过程的发现和理解，以及建立一个向高中教师和学生展示现代科学研究和技术的平台。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Intellectual Merit: Plants produce thousands of chemicals that are important to their growth, development and interaction with the environment. Many of these chemicals, such as glucosinolates, impact agricultural practice, human nutrition and health. Glucosinolates are a major group of thioglucosides with diverse biological activities, including defense against pathogens and insects. They are present in important Brassica crops as well as in the model plant Arabidopsis, which will be used for the proposed research. In order to engineer plants to improve crop quality and yield, create renewable energy and develop nutraceuticals, it will be essential to define the organization and connectivity of complex metabolic networks like those involved in glucosinolate production. The research team will use modern biological tools to understand the chemical networks that regulate plant glucosinolate metabolism. The project is expected to identify novel chemical components including proteins and metabolites and put them into functional context of glucosinolate metabolism. The research is expected to provide comprehensive knowledge of regulatory and metabolic mechanisms underlying glucosinolate metabolism that will help to develop crops with enhanced defense and improved quality. The approaches employed will provide technology development for future network analysis of other important plant pathways.Broader Impacts: In addition to the scientific impacts, this project will involve multidisciplinary training of students at different levels, as well as bring current knowledge of the plant chemical factory and modern functional genomics to high school classrooms. Education and training of high school teachers and students will facilitate effective preparation of our next-generation scientists and citizens with cutting-edge biological sciences. Educational/training activities will be developed for high school students and teachers in functional genomics, including online functional genomics resources. The large-scale data generated by this project will provide excellent materials for active learning, critical thinking, and problem solving. Thus, the broader impacts include advancing the discovery and understanding of essential plant chemical processes and establishing a platform to expose modern scientific research and technologies to high school teachers and their students.