A modelling portal for the UK plant systems biology community

这个项目是关于植物生长模型的。在这里，“模型”这个词不是指物理对象，而是指用数学方法来表示某物。这种模型由一系列数学方程组成，通常可以用计算机求解。通过在这些方程中输入温度、可用氮量和植物可以捕获的光能等因素的值，这些模型使预测植物的生长方式成为可能。许多可用的模型都是针对农作物的，它们可以估计出一种作物的产量，无论它是一种产出谷物的小麦，一棵长出新木材的树，还是一个提供牧草喂养动物的牧场。一些更复杂的现象也代表了植物和其他物种之间的相互作用，比如细菌和真菌，它们可以提高或减少植物根系或食叶食草动物对营养的吸收。从历史上看，这些模型在整个植物、农民的田地甚至景观的层面上工作，因为在这些层面上收集数据是最直接的。模拟植物生长是一个已经蓬勃发展了几十年的研究领域，英国在这方面尤为强大，但在现代分子科学家中并不为人所知。在“系统生物学”研究的新时代，科学家们能够捕获发生在更精细尺度上的过程的大量数据——例如单个叶子或根，甚至单个细胞。挑战在于利用这些大量的信息来预测植物的基因组成如何控制它的生长方式以及与环境的相互作用。越来越清楚的是，实现这一目标所需的许多数学技术与作物建模者使用的技术相同。目前项目的目的是使现有的作物模型通过互联网以一种用户友好的方式提供给系统生物学研究人员，这种方式独立于任何特定的计算机软件。这意味着系统生物学家可以调整模型以供自己使用，并将它们与在细胞水平上工作的其他模型联系起来。我们想要开发一个门户，一个一站式的互联网商店，用于模型本身，它们是如何被应用的例子，以及足够详细的解释，以允许其他人采用它们。我们还将提供一个论坛，以便社区可以为进一步的开发添加评论和建议，并在将来使用这些模型和其他模型时相互帮助。除了植物系统生物学专家之外，该门户网站还将对作物科学家和决策者有用。预测到的气候变化将意味着我们现在的作物在未来的表现会有所不同——这些模型将有助于预测这种差异是有益的，还是会导致作物减产或歉收。它们还将帮助研究人员和育种者开发新用途的作物，如生物能源。有些模型有能力预测整个生态系统（如森林）在变化条件下的行为。模型对植物科学研究、农业和环境的未来很重要，使它们尽可能地被广泛获取和使用是很重要的/这是我们项目的目的。

This project is all about plant growth models. Here, the word 'model' does not refer to a physical object but instead means a mathematical way of representing something. This kind of model consists of a series of mathematical equations which can be solved, normally using a computer. By feeding these equations with values for factors like temperature, amount of nitrogen available and light energy that plants can capture, the models make it possible to predict how a plant will grow. Many of the models available are for crop plants, and they can give estimates of how much a crop will produce, whether it is a wheat plant yielding grain, a tree growing new wood, or a pasture providing grass to feed animals. Some of the more complicated ones also represent interactions between plants and other species, such as bacteria and fungi which improve or reduce nutrient uptake by plant roots, or leaf-eating herbivores. Historically, these models work at the level of a whole plant, a farmer's field or even a landscape, because it has been most straightforward to collect data at these levels. Modelling plant growth, an area of research which has flourished for several decades, is one in which the UK has been especially strong, but which is not well known among modern molecular scientists. In the new era of 'systems biology' research, scientists are able to capture large amounts of data about processes that happen on a much finer scale - an individual leaf or root, for example, or even within a single cell. The challenge is to use this mass of information to predict how a plant's genetic makeup controls the way it grows and interacts with its environment. It is becoming clear that many of the mathematical techniques needed to make this possible are the same as those used by the crop modellers. The aim of the present project is to make existing crop models available to systems biology researchers via the Internet in a user-friendly way that is independent of any particular computer software. This means that systems biologists can adapt models for their own use, and connect them with other models that work at the cell level. We want to develop a portal, a one-stop Internet shop for the models themselves, examples of how they have been applied, and explanations detailed enough to allow other people to adopt them. We will also provide a forum so that the community can add comments and suggestions for further development, and help each other in using these and other models in the future. In addition to plant systems biology experts, the portal will be of use to crop scientists and to policy-makers. Predicted climate change will mean that our current crops will perform differently in the future - the models will help predict whether the difference will be beneficial or cause loss of yield or failure of crops. They will also aid researchers and breeders in developing crops for new uses, such as bioenergy. Some models have the capability to predict the behaviour of whole ecosystems, such as forests, under changing conditions. Models are important for the future of plant science research, agriculture and the environment and it is important to make them as widely accessible and usable as possible / this is the purpose of our project.