Evolutionary Studies of the Heat Shock Response and Thermotolerance in Boechera: Transcriptomics, Physiology and Gene Evolution

“这项奖励是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”本项目将研究4种岩菜植物（芸苔科，岩菜属）。这些植物原产于加利福尼亚。其中两种生活在沙漠中，另外两种生活在海岸或山区。这些植物在高温下的生存和生长能力各不相同。植物无法躲避高温胁迫，因此对高温胁迫的生存能力是植物非常重要的性状。虽然热胁迫已经在一些作物物种中进行了研究，但对野生植物物种对胁迫的耐受性差异知之甚少。这个项目将解决这个重要但尚未研究的问题。为了充分了解芥蓝植物对高温胁迫的反应，将进行研究，以检查光合作用的速率和整体植物生长。此外，还将对耐热和热敏植物在胁迫前后的基因表达谱进行研究。通过检查对压力有不同反应的物种之间的基因表达模式，研究人员将识别出能够耐受热应激的新基因和蛋白质。除了加深我们对野生植物如何适应压力的理解外，这项研究还将提供有助于理解作物物种如何获得耐热性的信息。在这个项目中，广泛的学生（包括本科生和研究生）将接受现代科学方法的培训。优先考虑家庭中第一个获得大学学位的学生和/或在科学领域代表性不足的群体的成员。此外，该项目还将培养一名博士后，并为其提供指导，以促进其独立研究生涯。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." This project will study four species of Rockcress plants (Brassicaceae family, Boechera genus). These plants are native to California. Two of these species live in deserts and two are found either on the coast or in the mountains. These plants differ in their ability to survive and grow when exposed to high temperatures. Plants cannot move away or avoid high temperature stress and therefore, the ability to survive high temperature stress is a very important trait for plants. While heat stress has been studied in some crop species very little is known of the differences in tolerance to stress among wild plant species. This project will address this important but yet under studied question. In order to obtain a full understanding of how Rockcress plants respond to high temperature stress studies will be conducted that will examine rates of photosynthesis, and overall plant growth. In addition, the gene expression patterns of both the heat-tolerant and heat-sensitive plants will be examined both before and after stress. By examining the patterns of gene expression among species that respond differently to stress the researchers will identify novel genes and proteins that provide tolerance to heat stress. In addition to deepening our understanding of how wild plants adapt to stress this research will also provide information that will assist in understanding how crop species may acquire tolerance to heat stress. During this project a wide range of students (both undergraduate and graduate) will be trained in modern scientific methods. Preference will be given to students that are the first in their families to attain a university degree and/or are members of groups that are under-represented in science. In addition, a post-doctoral fellow will be trained during this project and will be provided with mentoring to facilitate his or her independent research career.