Essential Roles of Receptor-Like Kinases in Brassinosteroid and Cell-Death Control Signaling Pathways

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Plants are sessile, which makes them vulnerable to constant assaults by hostile abiotic and biotic stresses. To ensure normal growth, plants have evolved unique mechanisms to defend themselves against harm from these stresses. The detailed mechanisms by which plants avoid death of cells caused by environmental stresses or diseases are poorly understood, mainly because key regulators are not identified. Recently, the Principal Investigator's group identified two receptor-like kinases (RLKs), BAK1 and BKK1, which can simultaneously mediate a brassinosteroid (BR)-dependent cell growth pathway and a BR-independent cell death control pathway. This is indeed an exciting discovery, as RLKs are critical cell surface receptor proteins responsible for cell-to-cell, tissue-to-tissue, and plant-to-environment communications. Objectives of the project will lead to understanding of detailed mechanisms underlying BAK1 and BKK1 regulation of growth and cell death processes. Work undertaken to address as part of this project will determine, by using genetic and biochemical approaches, whether BAK1 subfamily members (also designated as SERKs) are essential to the BR signaling pathway, and should demonstrate that SERKs are key proteins regulating a previously uncharacterized programmed cell death pathway. Attempts will be made to isolate novel signaling components associated with this cell-death control pathway. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms by which the RLKs concurrently regulate growth and stress-related cell death may permit future genetic manipulation to optimize the yield of commercially important crops grown under various environmentally stressful conditions. Broader Impacts. The project will provide excellent training opportunities for postdoctoral associates, graduate students, undergraduate students, and local high school students to investigate fundamental biological questions using a variety of genetic and biochemical approaches.