Understanding a Mutant that Disregulates Trehalose 6-Phosphate Action in Plants

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Sucrose formed in photosynthesis is the starting point for the synthesis of all plant products including those involved in growth and development, the harvested organs of crops, and the synthesis of starch, cell walls, proteins and lipids, which are the constituents of food, fibre, feed and fuel. Trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) is a sugar signal, or sugar fuel gauge intimately involved with sucrose biology relaying information to cells about the availably of sucrose. Despite the indispensable importance of the T6P signalling system in plants and crops there are many unanswered questions about the mechanisms involved in regulating the accumulation of T6P. This has important implications as a science grand challenge i.e. the regulation of plant "blood sugar" and the basis of T6P's determination of overall growth, yield and resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses, and translation in the form of increased crop yields and crop resilience. To address the fundamental question of how plants regulate T6P accumulation and hence all these processes on which this depends, we bring together a unique collaboration of researchers in chemical biology and molecular plant science applying tools unrivalled in one consortium of molecular genetic, biochemical, chemical and multi omics to understand the role of specific trehalose phosphate synthases and a protein kinase and their interaction with each other, and with other proteins and ligands.