I-Corps: Effective protection against damage to crops in drought conditions.

开发能够抵御干旱和盐胁迫的作物植物是基于植物科学的科学努力的前沿。基于基因改造的方法已经显示出开发此类植物的潜力，然而，转基因食品固有的复杂性和缺乏广泛接受性阻碍了进展。一个变革性的想法是通过施用类似肥料的小化合物来调节作物对环境胁迫的反应。在这项提案中，该团队开发了一系列具有潜在价值的农用化学品，这些化学品应该有助于抗旱，因此这些产品可能具有非常大的商业潜力。PI和他的团队已经在模式植物拟南芥中分离出了几十种靶向支架蛋白RACK1A功能域的小化合物。其中一种化合物- SD29已被证明在模式植物拟南芥中具有抗旱/盐胁迫能力。此外，初步研究表明，它在其他压力条件下也有保护作用。开发的另一种化合物可以使作物在干旱/盐胁迫等环境胁迫下保持光合作用。考虑到全球气候变化和增加生物燃料生产的生物量的努力，所提出的化合物在许多经济和环境方面具有巨大的潜力。这种新的RACK1抑制剂化学物质的成功演示为干旱/盐条件下的作物提供了安全有效的保护。

Development of crop plants that can withstand drought and salt stresses is at the forefront of plant science-based scientific endeavors. Genetic modification-based approaches have shown the potential to develop such plants, however, inherent complications and lack of wide spread acceptability of GMO foods hinder advancement. A transformative idea would be to regulate environmental stress responses in crop plants by applying fertilizer-like small compounds. In this proposal, the team has developed a series of potentially valuable agrichemicals that should help with drought tolerance, so there could be very substantial commercial potential for the products.The PI and his team have isolated dozens of small compounds targeting the functional domain of a well characterized scaffold protein RACK1A in the model plant Arabidopsis. One of the compounds- SD29 has shown to confer drought/salt stress resistance in the model plant Arabidopsis. In addition preliminary studies have shown that it protects under other stress conditions as well. Another compound developed can enable crop plants to maintain photosynthesis even under environmental stresses like drought/salt stresses. Considering the global climate change and effort to increase biomass for biofuel production, the proposed chemical compounds have great potential to contribute in many economic and environmental fronts. The successful demonstration of this new RACK1 inhibitors chemical provides safe and effective protection against damage to crops in drought/salty conditions.