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意的非生物和生物胁迫的持续攻击。为了确保正常生长，植物进化出了独特的机制来保护自己免受这些胁迫的伤害。植物避免由环境胁迫或疾病引起的细胞死亡的详细机制尚不清楚，主要是因为关键调控因子尚未确定。最近，首席调查员小组发现了两个受体样激酶(RLKs)，BAK1和BKK1，它们可以同时调节油菜素类固醇(BR)依赖的细胞生长途径和BR非依赖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是关键的细胞表面受体蛋白，负责细胞与细胞、组织与组织、植物与环境的通讯。该项目的目标将有助于理解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，开展的工作将通过使用遗传学和生化方法来确定BAK1亚家族成员(也被指定为SERK)是否对BR信号通路是必需的，并应该证明SERK是调节以前未描述的程序性细胞死亡途径的关键蛋白质。将尝试分离与这一细胞死亡控制途径相关的新的信号成分。阐明RLK同时调节生长和与胁迫相关的细胞死亡的分子机制可能使未来的基因操作能够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。该项目将为博士后助理、研究生、本科生和当地高中生提供极好的培训机会，让他们使用各种遗传和生化方法研究基本的生物学问题。

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.