Ultrafast Omics Reveals Key Players in the Response of Plants to Abiotic Stress

在田间条件下，环境胁迫如热或光胁迫会对植物的生长和产量产生毁灭性的影响。虽然人们对调节植物对这些逆境反应的不同信号事件知道得很多，但对植物在逆境开始后几秒钟或几分钟内发生的快速变化几乎一无所知。首席研究员实验室最近的研究确定了600多个不同的基因，其中包括30个可能在几秒钟内对非生物胁迫做出反应的新拟南芥基因。其中一些反应发生在受影响的组织以及没有直接受到胁迫的组织中，包括在非生物胁迫耐受性中具有重要功能的代谢物和转录物。有趣的是，许多这些超快反应在活性氧信号受损的突变体中发生了改变，这些突变体更容易受到胁迫的影响，这表明活性氧物种、超快反应和植物驯化密切相关。这个项目的假设是，植物在胁迫开始后几秒钟或几分钟内发生的超快分子和生理变化为许多已知的信号事件奠定了基础，这些信号事件协调了对环境胁迫的适应反应的激活，并影响植物的生长和生产力。这项拟议的研究将突出植物非生物胁迫反应的一个未知方面，即对胁迫的超快分子和代谢反应。这可能会对我们看待和理解非生物胁迫及其对植物新陈代谢的影响的方式产生戏剧性和变革性的影响。这项研究的结果可能导致开发新的和新的方法，利用以前没有考虑或知道的途径和化合物来提高作物对当地和/或全球气候变化的耐受性。这项拟议的研究还可以确定新的抗氧化剂和其他化合物，这些化合物可以减少压力对细胞功能的影响。这些可能会对许多不同的生化和医学领域产生重大影响。拟议的项目将为包括少数民族在内的1名博士后、1名研究生、4名本科生和12名高中生提供培训。通过榆树叉子教育中心和榆树叉子自然遗产博物馆提供的推广计划，PI将向K-12年级的学生提供基于推广的学习单元，重点是农业对我们社会的重要性、气候变化对农业的影响、利用遗传工具改良作物以及使用先进的成像工具研究植物生物学。这些计划也将在全国范围内向K-12教师提供。

Environmental stresses such as heat or light stress can have a devastating impact on plant growth and yield under field conditions. Although much is known about the different signaling events that mediate plant responses to these stresses, virtually nothing is known about the rapid changes that occur in plants within seconds or minutes of stress initiation. Recent studies from the principal investigator's laboratories identified over 600 different genes, including 30 putative new Arabidopsis genes that respond to abiotic stress within seconds. Some of these responses occurred at the affected tissue as well as in tissues that were not directly subjected to stress and included metabolites and transcripts with important function in abiotic stress tolerance. Interestingly, many of these ultrafast responses were altered in mutants impaired in reactive oxygen signaling, which were more susceptible to stress, indicating that reactive oxygen species, ultrafast responses and plant acclimation are intimately linked. The hypothesis in this project is that the ultrafast molecular and physiological alterations that occur in plants within seconds or minutes of stress initiation set the stage for many of the known signaling events that orchestrate the activation of acclimation responses to environmental stresses and impact plant growth and productivity. The proposed research will highlight an unknown aspect of the plant abiotic stress response, namely ultrafast molecular and metabolic responses to stress. This could have a dramatic and transformative impact on the way we view and understand abiotic stress and its effects on plant metabolism. Results obtained from this study could lead to the development of new and novel approaches to enhance the tolerance of crops to local and/or global climatic changes using pathways and compounds that were not previously considered or known. The proposed study could also identify novel antioxidants and other compounds that function to reduce the effects of stress on cellular function. These could have a significant impact on many different biochemical and medical fields. The proposed project will provide training to 1 postdoctoral fellow, 1 graduate student, 4 undergraduates and 12 high school students including minorities. Outreach-based learning modules focusing on the importance of agriculture to our society, the effect of climatic change on agriculture, the use of genetic tools to improve crops, and the use of advanced imaging tools to study plant biology will be offered by the PIs to K-12 students through the outreach programs offered by the Elm Fork Education Center and the Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum. These programs will also be offered to K-12 teachers nationwide.