EAGER: Defining the SUMOylation System in Maize and its Roles in Stress Protection

检测和响应压力的能力是植物在许多不利环境中生存的核心，也是次优田间条件下农业生产力的关键决定因素。虽然已经描述了一些途径，赋予特定的保护，以各种非生物和生物的挑战，最近发现的一个潜在的普遍保护机制，涉及小泛素相关的调节剂（SUMO）可能会改变目前的升值压力生物学。具体地，已经表明拟南芥SUMO多肽共价连接到许多核蛋白上，并且在将植物暴露于各种非生物胁迫后，这些缀合物的水平快速且可逆地上升。使用新的定量蛋白质组学方法，已经发现许多SUMO化靶标是已知的关键调节剂，其集体功能意味着SUMO添加参与广泛改变染色质可及性、转录和mRNA加工/输出的保护性反应。 综上所述，这些结果表明，相扑可能提供了独特的机会，在全球范围内操纵农业利益的压力反应。不幸的是，相扑系统的组织和功能在其他植物物种中基本上是未知的，包括所有重要的农作物，从而排除了合理的重新设计，以提高作物植物的生产力。此外，玉米和水稻的初步基因组分析表明，在谷类植物中的SUMO系统的组织可能显着不同，在拟南芥中观察到的。这个EAGER项目建议使用玉米（Zea mays）作为模型来定义SUMO化在作物胁迫期间如何起作用。具体目标是：（i）使用生物信息学和生物化学方法描述玉米中的SUMO化系统，并从动力学上定义该系统如何响应胁迫;（ii）产生影响SUMO添加和释放所需的关键组分的玉米突变体和转基因系的文库;（iii）定义玉米的“SUMO化组”，量化各个靶标的SUMO化状态在胁迫期间和恢复后如何变化;和（iv）分析SUMO途径突变体的表型以确定胁迫诱导的SUMO化如何帮助玉米在不利环境中存活。总的来说，该项目将产生急需的工具和种质，可用于了解SUMO如何在胁迫期间重组玉米染色质及其转录组，目前对植物中SUMO化的理解仍然是初步的，并且在作物物种中几乎不存在，在这些作物物种中，其操纵可能具有重大的农业意义。冲击该项目将为从事作物研究的下一代植物科学家提供跨学科培训。这项研究将共同纳入博士后，研究生，本科生以及高中学生赞助的威斯康星州青年学徒计划（雅普）在生物技术。 在本项目的过程中，将产生试剂、技术、突变体和转基因株系，这将为研究玉米中的SUMO化提供急需的基础，并有望为合理改变SUMO系统以获得农业和医药效益提供新的策略。 植物资源可通过玉米遗传学合作储备中心（http：//www.example.com）获得。maizecoop.cropsci.uiuc.edu 原始和处理的实验数据将保存在NCBI的基因表达综合库（GEO）和玉米GDB（http：//www.maizegdb.org/）中。

The ability to detect and respond to stress is central to a plant's survival in a host of unfavorable environments and a key determinant of agricultural productivity under sub-optimal field conditions. Although a number of pathways have been described that confer specific protection to various abiotic and biotic challenges, a recent discovery of a potentially universal protective mechanism involving the Small Ubiquitin-related MOdifier (SUMO) may transform the current appreciation of stress biology. Specifically, it has been shown that the Arabidopsis SUMO polypeptide becomes covalently attached to numerous nuclear proteins and that the levels of these conjugates rise rapidly and reversibly after exposing plants to various abiotic stresses. Using novel quantitative proteomic approaches, it has been discovered that many of the SUMOylation targets are known critical regulators with their collective functions implying that SUMO addition engages a protective response that broadly alters chromatin accessibility, transcription, and mRNA processing/export. Taken together, these results suggest that SUMO might offer unique opportunities to globally manipulate the stress response for agricultural benefit. Unfortunately, the organization and functions of the SUMO system are largely unknown in other plant species, including all important agricultural crops, thus precluding rational redesign to improve crop plant productivity. Moreover, preliminary genome analyses of maize and rice revealed that the organization of the SUMO system in cereals might differ significantly from that in observed in Arabidopsis. This EAGER project proposes to define how SUMOylation works during stress in crops using maize (Zea mays) as the model. The specific aims are to: (i) delineate the SUMOylation system in maize using bioinformatic and biochemical methods and define kinetically how the system responds to stress; (ii) generate a library of maize mutants and transgenic lines affecting key components required for SUMO addition and release; (iii) define the "SUMOylome" of maize, quantify how the SUMOylation status of individual targets changes during stress and after recovery; and (iv) analyze SUMO pathway mutants phenotypically to determine how stress-induced SUMOylation may help maize survive adverse environments. Collectively, this project will generate much-needed tools and germplasm that can be exploited to understand how SUMO might reorganize maize chromatin and its transcriptome during stress, and identify key points in plant stress responses involving SUMOylation that can be manipulated for improved yield.The current understanding of SUMOylation in plants is still rudimentary and almost nonexistent in crop species where its manipulation may have substantial agricultural impact. This project will provide interdisciplinary training of the next generation of plant scientists working on crops. This research will collectively incorporate postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates as well as high school students sponsored by the Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship Program (YAP) in Biotechnology. During the course of this project, reagents, techniques, mutants, and transgenic lines will be generated that will provide a much needed foundation to investigate SUMOylation in maize, and hopefully offer new strategies to rationally alter the SUMO system for agricultural and medicinal benefit. Plant resources will be available through the Maize Genetics Cooperative Stock Center (http://maizecoop.cropsci.uiuc.edu). Raw and processed experimental data will be deposited into NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and at Maize GDB (http://www.maizegdb.org/).