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

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。植物是无根的，这使得它们很容易受到敌对的非生物和生物压力的持续攻击。为了确保正常生长，植物进化出了独特的机制来保护自己免受这些压力的伤害。植物避免由环境压力或疾病引起的细胞死亡的详细机制尚不清楚，主要是因为关键的调节因子尚未确定。最近，首席研究员的小组发现了两个受体样激酶（RLKs）， BAK1和BKK1，它们可以同时介导油菜素内酯（BR）依赖的细胞生长途径和BR独立的细胞死亡控制途径。这确实是一个令人兴奋的发现，因为RLKs是关键的细胞表面受体蛋白，负责细胞与细胞，组织与组织以及植物与环境的通信。该项目的目标将有助于了解BAK1和BKK1调控生长和细胞死亡过程的详细机制。作为该项目的一部分，所开展的工作将通过使用遗传和生化方法确定BAK1亚家族成员（也称为serk）是否对BR信号通路至关重要，并应证明serk是调节先前未表征的程序性细胞死亡通路的关键蛋白。将尝试分离与这种细胞死亡控制途径相关的新的信号成分。阐明RLKs同时调节生长和与应激相关的细胞死亡的分子机制，可能允许未来的遗传操作来优化在各种环境胁迫条件下生长的重要商业作物的产量。更广泛的影响。该项目将为博士后、研究生、本科生和当地高中生提供良好的培训机会，利用各种遗传和生化方法研究基础生物学问题。

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.