Comparative functional genomics of plant resource acquisition, perception & allocation

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All organisms must contend with fluctuations in the availability of resources in their environment. The fluctuation of available resources poses a unique set of problems for land plants, as they are literally rooted in one place. Consequently, plants must monitor alterations in light, water and nutrient availability, and then modulate growth and development to ensure that resource allocation is aligned with resource availability. Reconfiguration of plant growth and development is generally underpinned by changes in the expression of suites of genes in the genome, the transcriptome. Previous NSERC-supported research in the Campbell lab characterised suites of genes that reconfigured plant responses to variation in two key resources, water and carbohydrate. This research identified key contributors to plant responsiveness to resource availability, including relatively large scale influences such as genotype and time of day, as well as more detailed influences such as specific gene regulators and non-mutational modification of DNA (epigenetic). These studies spanned research on the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, and translated results to the ecologically and economically important genus, Populus (which includes aspens, cottonwoods, poplars and their hybrids). The proposed research builds on the previous discoveries in the Campbell lab as a foundation to test hypotheses related to the breadth of phenomena that shape plant resource perception and resource allocation. Specifically, the proposed research programme comprises a body of experiments aimed to test the following hypotheses: 1) molecular components that operate upstream and downstream of specific transcription factors that shape plant resource allocation also shape resource allocation either more generally (upstream) or specifically (downstream); 2) suites of genes that characterise transcriptome remodelling in response to resource-derived signals define regulons under the control of resource regulators; 3) factors that influence genome accessibility (epigenome) shape the transcriptomes that arise in response to resource availability, and profoundly influence plant distribution on the landscape.