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。植物是固着的，这使得它们容易受到敌对的非生物和生物胁迫的持续攻击。为了确保正常生长，植物进化出独特的机制来保护自己免受这些压力的伤害。植物避免由环境胁迫或疾病引起的细胞死亡的详细机制知之甚少，主要是因为没有确定关键的调控因子。最近，主要研究者的小组确定了两种受体样激酶（RLK），BAK 1和BKK 1，它们可以同时介导油菜素类固醇（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RLK是负责细胞与细胞、组织与组织以及植物与环境通信的关键细胞表面受体蛋白。该项目的目标将导致对BAK 1和BKK 1调节生长和细胞死亡过程的详细机制的理解。作为该项目的一部分，所开展的工作将通过使用遗传和生物化学方法来确定BAK 1亚家族成员（也称为SERKs）是否对BR信号通路至关重要，并应证明SERKs是调节先前未表征的程序性细胞死亡通路的关键蛋白质。将尝试分离与此细胞死亡控制途径相关的新型信号传导组分。阐明RLKs同时调节生长和胁迫相关细胞死亡的分子机制可能允许未来的遗传操作，以优化在各种环境胁迫条件下生长的商业上重要的作物的产量。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极好的培训机会，利用各种遗传和生物化学方法研究基本生物学问题。

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.