Role of the Antiflorigen TFL1 in axillary meristem fate

Antiflorigen TFL1 在腋生分生组织命运中的作用

• 批准号: 1905062
• 负责人: Doris Wagner
• 金额: $ 90万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-04-15 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1905062&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Role; Antiflorigen; TFL1; axillary; meristem

Plants - unlike animals- cannot escape when they find themselves in an inhospitable environment. Instead, plants cope by changing themselves, their final form or by delaying/accelerating the transition through phases in their lifecycle. Key to these coping strategies are small proteins that can move from one part of the plant to another, called florigen and antiflorigen. Florigen promotes more rapid development and flower formation, while antiflorigen has the opposite effect. The two regulators oppose each other and together act like a rheostat. What trajectory plants will eventually follow depends on the relative abundance of florigen to antiflorigen, which in turn is controlled by temperature, daylength and other cues. How does the balance of florigen and antiflorigen change plant form or the rate of its developmental transitions? Addressing this question has been hampered by technical challenges, florigen and antiflorigen can modulate accumulation of other key regulators; but, do not bind DNA to change transcription. The principal investigators have overcome these challenges and can now dissect where in the plant these developmental choice decisions are made, the precise processes put in place by antiflorigen and how it opposes florigen. Insights gained from these studies will be of broad general interest both by advancing understanding of the activity of these important regulators and by impacting agriculture. Traits modulated by florigen and antiflorigen in different crop species include such key agronomical traits such as tuberization, bulb formation, tree bud set and bud burst, seed dormancy, photoperiod-dependent flowering and flower architecture.This project will leverage state-of the-art genetic, genomic, biochemical and cell biological approaches to provide mechanistic insight into the transcriptional pathways regulated by antiflorigen (TFL1), its repressive activity and the site of competitive action with florigen (FT). Specifically, imaging and genetic studies will probe whether FT, like TFL1, accumulates in and controls fate of axillary meristems. Standard and cell type specific RNAseq combined with network analyses will identify the pathways and the key components in each directly repressed by TFL1/FD. Finally, dual affinity purification combined with mass spectrometry (conducted in laboratory course) will uncover proteins that interact with and shape activity of the TFL1 complex. The combined activities will provide novel mechanistic insight into the question how key regulators of plant form and function execute their roles. The broader impacts, besides training of undergraduate students, graduate students and postdocs in independent research, will include mentoring of female scientists and training of 40 undergraduate students in research in laboratory courses. Students in two authentic research lab courses will conduct dual affinity purification combined with mass spectrometry, interpret the results and conduct follow-up experiments of their design. Finally, a lecture on research conducted in this proposal will be given to high school students during a summer research academy at Penn. Graduate students involved in the project will lead summer research academy lab sections, workshops and boot camps.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

植物与动物不同，当它们发现自己身处不适宜生存的环境时，它们无法逃脱。相反，植物通过改变自身、最终形态或在其生命周期的各个阶段延迟/加速过渡来应对。这些应对策略的关键是可以从植物的一个部分移动到另一个部分的小蛋白质，称为致花剂和抗致花剂。促花剂促进更快的发育和花的形成，而抗花剂则有相反的作用。这两个监管机构相互对立，共同起着变阻器的作用。植物最终的生长轨迹取决于致花剂和抗花剂的相对丰度，而这又受温度、日照长度和其他因素的控制。促花剂和抗花剂的平衡如何改变植物形态或其发育转变的速度？解决这一问题一直受到技术挑战的阻碍，促花剂和抗花剂可以调节其他关键调节剂的积累；但是，不会结合DNA来改变转录。主要研究人员已经克服了这些挑战，现在可以解剖植物的这些发育选择决定是在哪里做出的，抗花原的精确过程，以及它是如何对抗花原的。从这些研究中获得的见解将通过促进对这些重要监管机构活动的理解和对农业的影响而引起广泛的普遍兴趣。致花剂和反致花剂对不同作物性状的调控包括：结瘤、球茎形成、树芽定植和发芽、种子休眠、依赖光周期的开花和花结构等关键农艺性状。该项目将利用最先进的遗传学、基因组学、生物化学和细胞生物学方法，提供抗花原（TFL1）调控的转录途径、其抑制活性和与花原（FT）竞争作用位点的机制。具体而言，影像学和遗传学研究将探讨FT是否像TFL1一样在腋窝分生组织中积累并控制其命运。标准和细胞类型特异性RNAseq结合网络分析将确定TFL1/FD直接抑制的途径和关键成分。最后，双亲和纯化结合质谱法（在实验室过程中进行）将揭示与TFL1复合物相互作用并形成其活性的蛋白质。这些联合活动将为植物形态和功能的关键调节因子如何发挥作用提供新的机制见解。除了培养本科生、研究生和博士后进行独立研究外，更广泛的影响还包括指导女科学家和培养40名本科生进行实验课程的研究。两门正品研究性实验课程的学生将结合质谱法进行双亲和纯化，并对结果进行解释，并对其设计进行后续实验。最后，在宾夕法尼亚大学的夏季研究学院期间，将给高中生进行一次关于本提案中进行的研究的讲座。参与该项目的研究生将领导暑期研究学院实验室、研讨会和新兵训练营。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Plant Inflorescence Architecture: The Formation, Activity, and Fate of Axillary Meristems

• DOI: 10.1101/cshperspect.a034652
• 发表时间: 2020-01-01
• 期刊: COLD SPRING HARBOR PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY
• 影响因子: 7.2
• 作者: Zhu, Yang;Wagner, Doris
• 通讯作者: Wagner, Doris

Greenscreen: A simple method to remove artifactual signals and enrich for true peaks in genomic datasets including ChIP-seq data

• DOI: 10.1093/plcell/koac282
• 发表时间: 2022-09-19
• 期刊: PLANT CELL
• 影响因子: 11.6
• 作者: Klasfeld, Samantha;Roule, Thomas;Wagner, Doris
• 通讯作者: Wagner, Doris