细胞自噬(autophagy)是真核生物中一种由液泡或溶酶体介导的，对细胞内物质进行降解的重要途径。在植物的生长和发育过程中，细胞自噬在营养物质的重新利用和细胞稳态的维持方面起着重要作用，但是它在玉米胚乳发育时的功能仍有待研究。我们近期的研究发现在玉米胚乳发育过程中，大部分自噬相关基因的转录水平显著上调，并在外周胚乳区检测到高水平的自噬活动。通过代谢组学的研究也发现自噬突变体的胚乳细胞代谢异常。在本项目中，我们将以细胞生物学、代谢组学和转录组学等分析方法深入研究玉米胚乳发育过程中自噬在细胞代谢方面的作用。我们还将通过发掘参与调控细胞自噬的转录因子来阐明它在胚乳发育时的调控机制。此项研究不但有助于阐明细胞自噬在玉米胚乳发育时的作用和加深对其调控机制的认识，而且可为提高农作物结实时的营养循环利用提供新的思路和潜在靶点。

Autophagy is a highly conserved degradation process in eukaryotes whereby cytoplasmic material is sequestered in vesicles and delivered to lysosome or the vacuole for breakdown. Autophagy plays crucial roles in nutrient recycling and cell homeostasis during plant growth and development, but its role still remains unclear in maize endosperm development. Our prior work has found increased autophagic activity in peripheral endosperm and elevated transcript level of most of autophagy-related genes during maize endosperm development. Abnormal cellular metabolism has also been detected in the endosperm of maize autophagy mutants through metabolomic analysis. The objectives of this proposal are to: (i) study the role of autophagy in cellular metabolism during maize endosperm development by combining atg mutants with cell biological, metabolomics, and transcriptomic analyses; (ii) define the regulators that transcriptionally adjust autophagy machinery synthesis in maize endosperm. Collectively, this work will provide the first systems view of the role of autophagy in endosperm development of crop.