Deciphering the Symbiotic Calcium Code: The activation of CCaMK

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Plants must acquire their nutrition from their environment and this has led to the increased use of fertilizers. This approach is not a sustainable route for agriculture and alternative methods need to be developed to meet future crop demands. A large number of plants, however, have already developed strategies for obtaining their nutrition via symbioses with bacteria and fungi. Symbioses of legumes with nitrogen fixing bacteria provide the plant with nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Symbioses with fungi provide the plant with phosphorous, other elements, and water. A holy grail of plant research would be to exploit our understanding of how plants coordinate and promote these beneficial interactions to produce crops that are less reliant on fertilizers. A key part of this process is the generation and decoding of signals that tell the plant what to do. These messages are hidden in calcium oscillations. The aim of this project is to understand how these calcium oscillations lead to the activation of proteins that determine how the plant should develop. Previous studies suggest that an enzyme, protein kinase, may decode these calcium oscillations, thus raising the question how can the same messenger robustly determine different responses? A key question is therefore how calcium oscillations can activate this plant-specific protein kinase. In this proposal we will determine the mechanisms by which the kinase of a model legume (Medicago truncatula) decodes the oscillatory calcium responses. We will achieve this through a multidisciplinary approach using a combination of high resolution imaging of calcium within a root hair with mathematical modelling and detailed biochemical studies of the relevant components.