How do Phototropin Receptor Kinases Initiate Signalling from the Plasma Membrane?

提高作物产量有可能克服全球农业面临的挑战。增加植物生物量的战略集中于提高光合生产力。趋光蛋白受体激酶（Phototropin receptor kinases，phots）在这方面起着重要的作用，因为它们的功能是控制广泛的生理反应，这些反应共同作用于优化光合效率。这些包括叶绿体移位运动、叶片定位和扩展、气孔开放和向光性，所有这些都通过提高光捕获效率、减少光损伤和调节叶片与大气之间的气体交换来影响植物的光合能力。操纵这些过程可以提供相当大的潜力，通过改变光合性能来改变植物生长。然而，尽管经过了二十年的研究，我们对这些自磷酸化激酶如何被激活，如何被调节以及如何启动质膜信号传导的理解还远远没有完成。如果我们要充分利用改变光合作用的潜力来获得农学收益，那么更好地掌握所涉及的潜在机制将是至关重要的。该提案将利用大量的初步工作来回答我们关于光受体激活和光信号传导的分子基础知识中的关键空白。这项工作的成果最终将提供新的机会，以协调光合性能的增强，旨在提高产量和更有效地种植作物。从这项工作中获得的知识也将转化为在控制植物免疫和植物发育的激素调节中起关键作用的相关激酶。

Improving crop yield has the potential to overcome the challenges facing global agriculture. Strategies to increase plant biomass have centred on enhancing photosynthetic productivity. Phototropin receptor kinases (phots) play an important role in this regard as they function to control a wide range of physiological responses that collectively serve to optimise photosynthetic efficiency. These include chloroplast relocation movements, leaf positioning and expansion, stomatal opening and phototropism, all of which influence a plant's photosynthetic competence by improving the efficiency of light capture, reducing photodamage, and regulating gas exchange between leaves and the atmosphere. Manipulating these processes could offers considerable potential to alter plant growth through changes in photosynthetic performance. Yet, despite two decades of research, our understanding of how these autophosphorylating kinases are activated, how they are regulated and how they initiate signalling from the plasma membrane is far from complete. Obtaining a better grasp of the underlying mechanisms involved will be essential if we are to harness the full potential of altering phot function for agronomic gain. This proposal will capitalise on a substantial body of preliminary work to answer key gaps in our knowledge regarding the molecular basis underlying phot receptor activation and signalling by light. The outcomes of this work will ultimately offer new opportunities to coordinate enhancements in photosynthetic performance with an aim to increase yield and grow crops more efficiently. Knowledge gained from this work will also translate to related kinases with key roles in controlling plant immunity and the hormonal regulation of plant development.