Regulation of sulphur partitioning between primary and secondary metabolism

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In the last two decades we have made great progress in improving our air quality by reducing emissions, e.g. of sulphur dioxide. As a consequence, however, less sulphur is falling naturally onto the Earth`s surface and there is a lack of sulphur in the soil. This has become a serious problem for UK agriculture. Sulphur is essential for all living organisms as it is bound in proteins and found in many other compounds vital for life. To make such compounds, plants need to take up sulphate from the soil, reduce it, and incorporate it into amino acids. In addition to these 'primary' compounds, plants synthesize a great variety of other biologically active 'secondary' molecules that are responsible for scent, colour, or the taste of plants. They also help in the defence of the plants against insects, fungi, or bacteria. Some crops, such as oilseed rape, produce a lot of these secondary compounds and therefore require more sulphur for their growth than other plants. We want to know how plants divide the sulphur they take up between the primary and secondary products. We will concentrate on one family of proteins that we believe are responsible for control of sulphur flow. We will create plants where these proteins will no longer be active and plants which will have much more of them. Comparing such plants will enable us to understand how the sulphur is divided between primary and secondary compounds. We want to test, whether plants that save sulphur by producing less of the secondary compounds will be as healthy as normal plants. The results of this project could allow us to develop crop plants that take up and use sulphur more efficiently, reducing the need for fertilisers.