NDR1: A Point of Convergence in Stress and Pathogen Signaling in Arabidopsis Thaliana.

植物经常暴露在压力下，但它们已经进化出许多机制来应对，适应，并在一些最恶劣的条件下茁壮成长。在大多数情况下，适应压力的能力，无论是来自环境（非生物）还是捕食者（生物），只需要“资源的重新分配”。例如，在干旱条件下，植物下调生长和发育，这两个过程都是能源昂贵的过程，有利于减少水分损失。同样，当植物被病原体感染时，主要目标是限制病原体获取营养物质。本项目旨在了解植物如何利用基本生理过程来应对压力。为此，该项目将研究生物胁迫信号是如何被激活和调节的，此外，这个信号过程是如何与一般宿主生理和植物健康相互联系的。首席研究员假设植物以与人类相似的方式利用机制整合环境和病原体相关的应激信号反应。该项目的目标是了解非生物和生物应激信号是如何共同调节的，并建立植物如何感知周围世界的模型，处理这些感知到的刺激，并最终在各种应激条件下生存。这项工作的影响将基本植物健康与环境、病原体威胁以及总体上的粮食安全联系起来。该项目包括一个广泛的外联部分。简而言之，一个教学模块将由研究生和博士后研究人员在首席研究员的实验室进行，并与密歇根州立大学儿童花园和4H外展计划合作开展。主要的重点将是教育小学生关于环境、植物健康、食品和可持续性之间的关系。这次外联活动的目标是提高年轻人对环境如何影响食物以及最终影响人类健康的认识和理解，此外，说明人类如何影响环境。

Plants are constantly exposed to stress, yet they have evolved numerous mechanisms to respond, adapt, and thrive under some of the most hostile conditions. In most cases, the ability to adapt to stress, whether from the environment (abiotic) or predators (biotic), simply requires a "reallocation of resources". For example, under conditions of drought, plants down-regulate growth and development, both being energy-expensive processes, in favor of minimizing water loss. Similarly, when plants are infected by pathogens, the primary goal is to restrict pathogen access to nutrients. This project seeks to understand how plants utilize basic physiological processes to respond to stress. To do this, the project will investigate how biotic stress signaling is activated and regulated, and moreover, how this signaling process is interlinked with general host physiology and plant health. The principal investigator hypothesizes that in a manner similar to humans, plants utilize mechanisms to integrate environmental and pathogen-related stress signaling responses. The goal of this project is to understand how abiotic and biotic stress signaling is co-regulated, and to develop a model of how plants sense the world around them, process these perceived stimuli, and ultimately, survive under a variety of stress conditions. The impact of this work links basic plant health to environment, threats from pathogens, and in total, food security.The project includes an extensive outreach component. In short, a teaching module will be conducted by graduate and post-doctoral researchers in principal investigator's lab and carried out in collaboration with the Michigan State University Children's Garden and 4H Outreach Program. The major focus will be to educate elementary school children on the relationship(s) between environment, plant health, food, and sustainability. The goal of this outreach is to increase the awareness and understanding of young people of how food, and ultimately human health, is impacted by the environment, and moreover, to illustrate how humans impact the environment.