Engineering crops for improved freezing tolerance and better yields

提高作物耐寒性和产量的工程作物低温对作物造成相当大的损害，许多研究的重点是识别赋予植物对寒冷条件的耐受性的基因。通过突变筛选，我们已经鉴定出了一个拟南芥的耐寒基因，该基因是一个已知的授予抗旱性的基因。它可能通过类似的机制改善冰冻损伤的影响，然而，该蛋白是多功能的，在不同的亚细胞和组织位置表达。这个项目的目的是确定蛋白质的哪些特定位置和酶活性是耐寒所必需的。该项目还密切关注了非生物胁迫耐受性和产量之间的关系。抗逆性的提高通常被产量的损失所抵消，然而，这种蛋白的多重功能之一是通过改善生长素的运输来促进植物的生长。该项目旨在发现是否有可能在同一植物中同时提高产量和耐寒性，以期改善作物。

Engineering crops for improved freezing tolerance and better yieldsFreezing temperatures cause considerable damage to crops and a focus of much research is to identify the genes that confer plant tolerance to freezing conditions. Through a mutant screen, we have identified an Arabidopsis for freezing tolerance gene as one already known to confer drought tolerance. It may ameliorate the effects of ice damage by a similar mechanism, however, the protein is multifunctional and expressed at different subcellular and tissue locations. The purpose of this project is to identify which of the protein's specific locations and enzymatic activities is/are necessary for freezing tolerance. The project also takes a close look at the relationship between abiotic stress tolerance and yield. Increases in stress tolerance are usually offset by losses in yield, however, one of the multiple functions of this protein is to increase plant growth through improving auxin transport. The project aims to discover whether it is possible to increase both yield and freezing tolerance in the same plant with a view to crop improvement.