Structural and biochemical investigations of the Brassinosteroid (BR) pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana

拟南芥油菜素类固醇 (BR) 途径的结构和生化研究

• 批准号: 239742070
• 负责人: Dr. Marco Bürger
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Plant Biology Laboratory
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Fellowships
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2012-12-31 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/239742070?language=en
• 关键词: Structural; biochemical; investigations; Brassinosteroid; BR

The demand for food, feed, fiber, and fuel has placed agriculture at the center of grand challenges for this century. During the past 15 years, the mechanisms by which small molecule phytohormones regulate growth have been elucidated in Arabidopsis. Among them, the growth-promoting brassinosteroid (BR) pathway is one of the best-defined signal transduction pathways in plants. The receptor and its signaling components are known, but a detailed description of protein-protein interactions during receptor activation is lacking.Activation of the receptor leads to phosphorylation of at least 2 proteins: BSK1 and CDG1. A recent study revealed that BSK1 activates a further protein, BSU1, by phosphorylation. However, it remains unclear at the moment if BSK1 is a real kinase, which functions on its own or if it acts together with a third protein, CDG1. Thus, my research will try to answer the following questions:1. Are BSKs protein kinases? 2. Are CDG, BSK and BSU in direct contact with each other and do they require contact with an activated BRI1/BAK1/BR to signal? 3. What are the protein-protein interaction domains of CDG, BSK, and CDG1?These problems will be mainly addressed by means of X-ray protein crystallography and biochemical methods like kinase activity assays. The successful completion of the proposed experiments will close the final gap in the BR signaling pathway, a key pathway that determines the size of plants and the results should have very high impact to explain the phenotypic plasticity of plants. An added bonus in my case is that I will learn Arabidopsis genetics and can add plant techniques to my laboratory skill set.

对食物、饲料、纤维和燃料的需求已将农业置于本世纪重大挑战的中心。在过去的15年里，小分子植物激素调节拟南芥生长的机制已被阐明。其中，促进植物生长的油菜素类固醇(BR)途径是植物中最明确的信号转导途径之一。受体及其信号成分已知，但缺乏对受体激活过程中蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用的详细描述。受体的激活导致至少两种蛋白质的磷酸化：BSK1和CDG1。最近的一项研究表明，BSK1通过磷酸化激活另一种蛋白质BSU1。然而，目前还不清楚BSK1是一种真正的激酶，它是单独发挥作用，还是与第三种蛋白质CDG1共同作用。因此，我的研究将试图回答以下问题：1.BSK是蛋白激酶吗？2.CDG、BSK和BSU之间是否直接接触，它们是否需要与激活的BRI1/BAK1/BR接触才能发出信号？3.CDG、BSK和CDG1的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用区域是什么？这些问题将主要通过X射线蛋白质结晶学和酶活性测定等生化方法来解决。这些实验的成功完成将填补BR信号通路的最终空白，BR信号通路是决定植物大小的关键途径，其结果将对解释植物的表型可塑性产生非常大的影响。对我来说，一个额外的好处是我将学习拟南芥遗传学，并可以将植物技术添加到我的实验室技能集中。