Tonoplast Protein Trafficking in Arabidopsis

拟南芥中的液泡膜蛋白运输

• 批准号: 0951616
• 负责人: Marcela Pierce
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-02-15 至 2012-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0951616&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Tonoplast; Protein; Trafficking; Arabidopsis

The vacuole is an essential organelle in plants and has major implications for human health. In fact, an important portion of our diet, including the essential amino acids found in beans and corn, comes from molecules stored in the vacuole. The integrity of the vacuolar membrane is important for the storage of metabolites and hormones, the sequestration of ions and the maintenance of cellular turgor. To improve plant stress tolerance and ultimately increase the nutritional value of plants for human consumption, it is essential that we understand how to regulate vacuolar membrane biogenesis. The long-term goal of this research is to identify and characterize the trafficking machinery for vacuolar membrane proteins. An integrated strategy of genetic, biochemical and cell biological approaches will be utilized to identify and characterize mutations and chemical inhibitors that disrupt the trafficking of membrane proteins to the vacuole. The specific aims are to: 1) Identify mutants impaired in the targeting of membrane proteins. 2) Identify small inhibitors that induce mis-localization of vacuolar membrane proteins. Both mutants and inhibitors will uncouple the distinct targeting pathways of membrane proteins to the vacuole. This research will have a major impact in the understanding of vacuole biogenesis and the ability to improve plants with enhanced vacuolar content.The broader impacts of this project include the training of minority undergraduate and graduate students in state-of-the-art techniques in molecular biology and microscopy. In addition, a teacher and minority high-school students from the Wake County public schools system will be engaged as part of this research program.

液泡是植物中必不可少的细胞器，对人类健康具有重要意义。实际上，我们饮食的重要部分，包括豆类和玉米中的必需氨基酸，来自液泡中存储的分子。液泡膜的完整性对于代谢物和激素的储存，离子的隔离和维持细胞turg虫很重要。为了提高植物胁迫的耐受性，并最终增加了植物的营养价值以供人类食用，我们必须了解如何调节液泡膜生物发生。这项研究的长期目标是识别和表征液泡膜蛋白的运输机制。遗传，生化和细胞生物学方法的综合策略将用于识别和表征突变和化学抑制剂，这些突变和化学抑制剂破坏了将膜蛋白运输到液泡中的突变和化学抑制剂。具体目的是：1）确定膜蛋白靶向损害的突变体。 2）确定诱导液泡膜蛋白不定位的小抑制剂。突变体和抑制剂都将使膜蛋白的明显靶向途径与液泡相关。这项研究将对理解液泡生物发生以及具有增强液泡含量的植物的能力产生重大影响。该项目的更广泛影响包括培训少数族裔本科生和研究生在分子生物学和显微镜中的最先进技术中的培训。此外，Wake County公立学校系统的一名教师和少数族裔高中生将作为该研究计划的一部分。