An Integrated Analysis of Root Gravitropism

被暴风雨吹倒的植物往往会向上弯曲，从而将它们的叶子，花朵和/或种子抬到地面上，在那里它们可以继续生长和发育，远离土壤水分和病原体。农作物也表现出或多或少有效的曲率响应虚脱，从而使种子回到一个位置，适合机械收获。这种反应是可能的，因为所有植物器官都能感觉到它们相对于重力和光线的方向，并相应地指导它们的生长。MPI的实验室正在研究使植物器官能够利用重力作为生长指南的分子机制。有了这个奖项，PI和他的同事们将使用最先进的分子遗传学策略，包括下一代测序和高通量蛋白质鉴定，来分析野生型和突变型幼苗对重力刺激的全球基因组表达反应，从而产生一个全球性的分子机制，使植物能够利用重力作为生长指南。从长远来看，该项目的结果应产生信息，为设计文化、工程和/或植物育种战略提供信息，这些战略的目的是提高边际土地或在遭受大风和风暴的条件下的作物生产力，这是全球气候变化的一个预测后果。结果将发表在科学文献中，原始数据将通过公共储存库网站提供，如国家生物技术信息中心（NCBI）的基因表达综合库（GEO：http：//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/）。该项目还将包括一个重要的教学组成部分。除了涉及博士后研究员，研究生和本科生在这项研究中，PI将招募高中教师和学生开发教学模块为K-12教育，整合本研究的材料，解决特定的课程需求，并与国家和国家科学标准保持一致。

Plants prostrated by heavy storms tend to curve back upward, thereby lifting their leaves, flowers and/or seeds up above ground, where they can continue to grow and develop away from the soil moisture and pathogens. Crop plants also display a more-or-less efficient curvature response to prostration, thereby bringing seeds up back into a position that is amenable to mechanical harvesting. This response is possible because all plant organs can sense their orientation relative to gravity and light and direct their growth accordingly. The MPI's laboratory is investigating the molecular mechanisms that enable plant organs to use gravity as a growth guide. With this award, the PI and his co-workers will use state-of-the-art molecular genetic strategies, including next-generation sequencing and high-throughput identification of proteins, to analyze global genome expression responses to gravistimulation in wild type and mutant seedlings, thereby generating a global view of the molecular mechanisms that allow plants to use gravity as a guide for growth. In the long term, results derived from this project should yield information that will inform the design of cultural, engineering and/or plant-breeding strategies aimed at improving crop productivity in marginal lands or under conditions that expose them to heavier winds and storms, a predicted consequence of global climate change. The results will be published in the scientific literature, and the primary data will be made available through public repository web sites such as the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) repository at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). This project will also include an important instructional component. In addition to involving a postdoctoral fellow, graduate and undergraduate students in this research, the PI will recruit high-school teachers and students to develop instructional modules for K-12 education that integrate materials from this research, address specific curricular needs, and are aligned with state and national science standards.