组蛋白分子伴侣调控植物开花时间的分子机理

组蛋白分子伴侣能够结合组蛋白，介导核小体组装/去组装过程中组蛋白与DNA之间的相互作用，参与染色质复制、DNA修复以及基因表达调控等。我们实验室前期报道了植物组蛋白分子伴侣NRP和ASF1的生理功能及其对植物生长发育的影响。近期的研究发现NRP和ASF1均能调控模式植物拟南芥的开花时间而且二者具有协同作用。开花是植物由营养生长转为生殖生长的关键生理过程，相关基因的表达受到体内发育阶段和外界环境的多重调节。尽管有关组蛋白翻译后修饰等表观遗传学机制调控植物开花已经有较多研究，但组蛋白分子伴侣在开花过程中的作用还从未见报道。我们旨在通过本项目的研究，阐明组蛋白分子伴侣NRP和ASF1调控植物开花时间的分子机制，研究组蛋白分子伴侣在植物开花的网络调控中与组蛋白翻译后修饰的相互作用，探索不同表观遗传调控机制之间的关系。

Histone chaperones bind histones, mediate the histone-DNA interaction during nucleosome assembly and disassembly, and play roles in chromatin replication, DNA repair and transcriptional regulation. We previously reported the molecular and functional analysis of histone chaperones NRP and ASF1 in regulating plant growth and development. Recent research showed that both NRP and ASF1 are involved in the regulation of flowering time in Arabidopsis. Flowering is the key transition of plant from vegetative stage to reproductive period, and the underlying genetic regulation network is affected by both plant developmental processes and the environmental signals. Although epigenetic mechanisms including histone post-translational modifications have been studied in the flowering time regulation, the roles of histone chaperones in this important biological process have never been reported. We try to explain the molecular mechanism of NRP and ASF1 in the transcriptional regulation of flowering-related genes, and discover the functional interaction of histone chaperones with histone post-translational modification during plant flowering by the support of this grant.