日益严重的雾霾环境污染和沙漠化问题已严重困扰我国人民的正常生活和身体健康，改造和培育更适合沙漠栽培的植物以提高森林覆盖率是解决我国环境污染有效手段之一。研究植物生物大分子的化学修饰及功能调控，将有效地加快植物优化改良的进程。植物中DNA和组蛋白化学修饰已被广泛研究，而RNA化学修饰虽刚起步，但已发现RNA化学修饰N6-甲基腺嘌呤（m6A）对植物生长发育具有重要的调控功能。本项目将首次发现和研究植物中m6A的修饰酶、去修饰酶、识别蛋白，揭示m6A关键调控蛋白对植物生长、发育、环境应激等调控功能，完整解析RNA化学修饰对植物的调控网络。在基础科学研究的基础上，将首次利用外源和内源具有调控m6A的关键基因改造植物，通过调控植物的RNA化学修饰，操控植物的生长发育，进而开发和培育优良的植物品种。本项目将是世界上首次将RNA表观遗传学应用于植物改造工程。

Heavy haze, air pollution and desertification become the key threat of Chinese people’s health. One effective solution is to increase forest coverage in China by engineering plants for better growing in the desert. Study the functional regulation of chemical modifications of biomaromolecules in plant will improve the plant engineering. Compared with the extensive exploration of DNA and histone modifications in plant, RNA modifications were investigated less. Analogous to DNA and histone modifications, it was proved that RNA modification N6-methyladenosine (m6A) play key roles in plant development. In this proposal, we will focus on the methyltransferases (writers), demethylases (erasers) and the binding proteins (readers) of RNA modifications in plant to unravel their pivotal roles in the regulation of plant development and plant response/adaptation to environmental stresses. Based on the fundamental science discoveries, we will engineer plant through the regulation of plant m6A with exogenous or endogenous m6A key factors to control the plant development and plant response to environmental stresses, which is the first time to take RNA epigenetics into plant engineering.