CAREER: Uncoupling Growth and Triacylglycerol Accumulation in Algae

职业：解开藻类生长和三酰甘油积累的耦合

• 批准号: 1552522
• 负责人: Leslie Hicks
• 金额: $ 87.97万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-12-01 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1552522&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Uncoupling; Growth; Triacylglycerol; Accumulation

Photosynthetic microalgae show great promise for meeting US demands for renewable, sustainable, and affordable biofuels. Algae are dynamic living systems wherein external and internal signals are integrated to produce metabolic changes over time that can promote the accumulation of lipids, a component of biodiesel fuels. This CAREER project will determine how internal signals regulate the flow of carbon from basic functions like cell growth to alternative pathways such as production of lipids. The focus of this project is on the TARGET of RAPAMYCIN signaling network that has been characterized extensively in animals and fungi, but is much less understood in photosynthetic organisms. This information will provide insights into whether this signaling network can be harnessed and/or bypassed to improve lipid production. A diverse population of graduate, undergraduate and high-school students will be trained in mass spectrometry, proteomics, molecular biology, analytical chemistry and bioinformatics as part of the research and tightly aligned research-oriented educational aims of this project.Understanding the regulatory processes governing energy-dense compound production is essential for controlling carbon capture, partitioning, and storage in photosynthetic microalgae. In this work, the TARGET of RAPAMYCIN (TOR) signaling pathway in Chlamydomonas will be elucidated in order to facilitate strategies to decouple cellular growth from triacylglycerol accumulation. The TOR kinase pathway is a conserved eukaryotic regulator of growth in response to stress, nutrients and energy supply. There is only a nascent understanding of its role in photosynthetic organisms. There is not yet a comprehensive understanding of the pathway, its coordination, or of the interplay between nutrient deprivation and kinase-mediated signal transduction. This project will employ an integrative strategy of genetics, molecular biology, and mass spectrometry to i) identify direct and indirect substrates of TOR kinase activity in vivo, ii) establish TOR protein network connectivity through delineation of substrates and effectors, and iii) develop a research-inspired mass spectrometry curriculum for undergraduate/graduate education. This systems-level description of TOR signaling will provide insight into how the TOR pathway can be harnessed and/or bypassed in order to uncouple the process of cell growth from triacylglycerol accumulation.

光合微藻在满足美国对可再生、可持续和负担得起的生物燃料的需求方面显示出巨大的希望。藻类是动态的生命系统，其中外部和内部信号被整合，随着时间的推移产生代谢变化，从而促进脂质（生物柴油燃料的一种成分）的积累。这个CAREER项目将确定内部信号如何调节碳从细胞生长等基本功能到脂质生产等替代途径的流动。这个项目的重点是RAPAMYCIN信号网络的目标，这个信号网络在动物和真菌中已经被广泛表征，但在光合生物中却知之甚少。这一信息将提供关于是否可以利用和/或绕过该信号网络来改善脂质产生的见解。研究生、本科生和高中生将接受质谱学、蛋白质组学、分子生物学、分析化学和生物信息学方面的培训，作为该项目研究的一部分，并紧密结合以研究为导向的教育目标。了解控制能量密集化合物生产的调节过程对于控制光合微藻的碳捕获、分配和储存至关重要。在这项工作中，将阐明衣藻中RAPAMYCIN （TOR）信号通路的目标，以促进将细胞生长与甘油三酯积累分离的策略。TOR激酶途径是一种保守的真核生物生长调节剂，对应激、营养和能量供应作出反应。对于它在光合生物中的作用，人们还只是初步了解。目前还没有一个全面的了解途径，它的协调，或营养剥夺和激酶介导的信号转导之间的相互作用。该项目将采用遗传学、分子生物学和质谱分析的综合策略，1)鉴定体内TOR激酶活性的直接和间接底物，2)通过描绘底物和效应物建立TOR蛋白网络连接，以及3)为本科生/研究生教育开发研究启发的质谱课程。这种对TOR信号传导的系统级描述将深入了解如何利用和/或绕过TOR通路，以便从三酰甘油积累中解耦细胞生长过程。