Evolution of receptor signalling specificity for symbiosis and development

共生和发育的受体信号传导特异性的进化

• 批准号: BB/V006029/1
• 负责人: Uta Paszkowski
• 金额: $ 70.99万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FV006029%2F1
• 关键词: Evolution; receptor; signalling; specificity; symbiosis

A key event in the evolution of complex life on earth is the transition of plants from water to land. To conquer the terrestrial environment plants had to develop strategies for the acquisition of soil nutrients with initially primitive root precursors. Ever since, plants have lived in symbioses with nutrient-delivering beneficial fungi. Today, the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the most commonly occurring beneficial plant-fungal interaction on Earth, contributing to plant fitness, plant biodiversity and global nutrient cycles. Yet, we are only beginning to unveil the molecular processes leading to the establishment of this intimate association and to control it for modern crop breeding. The Paszkowski group has found that an alpha/beta hydrolase receptor, called DWARF 14 LIKE (D14L), is essential for fungal perception of rice in the rhizosphere. The activation of this receptor is necessary for the unblocking of genetic programmes that enable symbiosis development and induce production of the phytohormone strigolactone (Gutjahr et al., Science 2015; Choi et al., Nat Commun 2020). The receptor is present across the plant kingdom and serves multifunctional roles, including the detection of the smoke constituent karrikin and the modulation of seedling development amongst others. However, D14L receptors from different plant species are functionally not necessarily equivalent. The Paszkowski lab recently found that the D14L homologue from Arabidopsis thaliana was only able to complement the developmental phenotype of rice d14l mutants, but failed to restore AM symbiosis.As D14L receptors are present across terrestrial plants, including early divergent plants and even Charophyte algae, they may have distinctly and successively diversified to acquire the signalling roles we observe today. We now wish to reproduce the evolutionary trajectory in order to define the protein features that condition signalling specificity, and to better understand their emergence. Exploiting the exponentially growing genome sequence resource, we propose here a high-resolution metagenomics approach, employing and developing computational tools that are significantly superior relative to conventional practices. This includes the development of new algorithmic steps enabling 10,000-fold computational acceleration compared to previous approaches. Results obtained from these in silico efforts are then functionally validated in rice to confirm their relevance in vivo.Insights generated here are vital for understanding how receptor functioning integrates and specifies different signalling cues. In doing so, this will open up new areas of research in computational and plant biology and provide a paradigm for which other examples of signalling processes can be assessed.

地球上复杂生命进化的一个关键事件是植物从水到陆地的转变。为了征服陆地环境，植物必须制定利用最初的原始根前体获取土壤养分的策略。从那时起，植物就与提供营养的有益真菌共生。如今，丛枝菌根 (AM) 共生是地球上最常见的有益植物-真菌相互作用，有助于植物健康、植物生物多样性和全球养分循环。然而，我们才刚刚开始揭示导致这种密切联系建立并控制它以进行现代作物育种的分子过程。 Paszkowski 小组发现，一种称为 DWARF 14 LIKE (D14L) 的 α/β 水解酶受体对于根际水稻的真菌感知至关重要。该受体的激活对于解锁基因程序是必要的，这些基因程序能够实现共生发展并诱导植物激素独脚金内酯的产生（Gutjahr 等人，Science 2015；Choi 等人，Nat Commun 2020）。该受体存在于整个植物界，具有多种功能，包括检测烟雾成分 karrikin 和调节幼苗发育等。然而，来自不同植物物种的D14L受体在功能上不一定相同。 Paszkowski实验室最近发现，来自拟南芥的D14L同源物只能补充水稻d14l突变体的发育表型，但无法恢复AM共生。由于D14L受体存在于陆地植物中，包括早期分化植物甚至轮藻藻，它们可能已经明显地、连续地多样化以获得我们今天观察到的信号作用。我们现在希望重现进化轨迹，以便定义调节信号特异性的蛋白质特征，并更好地理解它们的出现。利用呈指数增长的基因组序列资源，我们在这里提出了一种高分辨率宏基因组学方法，采用和开发相对于传统实践明显优越的计算工具。这包括开发新的算法步骤，与以前的方法相比，计算速度可提高 10,000 倍。从这些计算机工作中获得的结果然后在水稻中进行功能验证，以确认它们在体内的相关性。这里产生的见解对于理解受体功能如何整合和指定不同的信号线索至关重要。这样做，这将开辟计算和植物生物学的新研究领域，并提供一个可以评估信号过程的其他例子的范例。