Protein ubiquitination, plant development and abiotic stress tolerance

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Ubiquitination involves the attachment of a small protein, named ubiquitin, to select target proteins. The attached ubiquitin serves as a 'tag' which sends the protein to the proteasome complex where it gets degraded. The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) ensures that important proteins are in the right place at the right time and in the right amounts within the cell. Plants use the UPS to make changes to protein content in the cell and this enables continued growth, development and survival during stressful environmental conditions. Environmental stresses, such as drought and increased soil salinity, negatively impact plant growth and development and are the major cause of crop loss each year. One approach to solving this problem is to develop stress tolerant crop varieties that are capable of optimal growth and production during unfavourable growing conditions. Before these new crops can be developed we must first have a detailed understanding of the changes that plants undergo to survive these episodes. Our research addresses this by deciphering how plants use the UPS to promote changes in the cell allowing them to thrive within a stressful environment. The research will lead to the identification of novel genes associated with stress-tolerance and give insight into how the UPS can possibly be manipulated to provide a survival advantage to plants. These results will provide pertinent information in the development of new crop varieties, hence providing a huge economic benefit to the agricultural industry in Canada.