棕榈酰化是一类重要的蛋白质翻译后修饰，主要是将棕榈酸连接到底物蛋白上，通过调控底物蛋白质的亚细胞定位或者生化功能而影响细胞内各个重要的生理过程。酵母和哺乳动物体系中，蛋白质棕榈酰化是国际上研究的热点。然而，在植物生物学领域，关于棕榈酰化的研究刚刚起步，很多问题还有待解答。为了研究植物蛋白棕榈酰化的分子机制，本项目拟首次在植物系统中建立一个基于链接化学的高效灵敏棕榈酰化检测平台；同时，本申请人通过反向遗传学方法筛选到一个植物衰老相关的棕榈酰转移酶基因ELSP1(Early Leaf Senescence- related Palmitoyl-transferase 1)，后续工作拟运用建立的检测方法，寻找ELSP1修饰的底物，从而阐明其调控叶片衰老过程的分子机制。综上所述，本课题的研究将通过表型分析结合生化检测，揭示植物蛋白棕榈酰化在细胞内的功能和机理。

Palmitoylation is an important posttranslational protein modification that transfers palmitate to cysteine residues of substrate proteins to control their subcellular localization or activity and subsequently regulate different cellular processes. Palmitoylation in yeast and mammalian systems has been studied in details, but the function of palmitoylation in plants remains unclear. To illustrate the molecular roles of palmitoylation in plants, we will try to establish an efficient assay to detect this modification in Arabidopsis protoplasts. Recently in our laboratory, a palmitoyl-transferase gene ELSP1(Leaf Senescence related palmitoyltransferase 1) was characterized to be associated with leaf senescence in Arabidopsis. Palmitoylation substrates of ELSP1 will be identified by the established assay to reveal the molecular regulation mechanism of palmitoylation in senescence. In conclusion, the combination of phenotype characterization and biochemical dectection will improve our knowledge in the function and mechanism of protein palmitoylation in plant cells.