植物在生命周期中会遭遇多种非生物胁迫的干扰，这些胁迫严重的影响农作物的产量和品质。随着全球气候变暖，干旱成为最为常见且严重的胁迫之一，每年因干旱胁迫造成的经济损失巨大。缓解干旱胁迫造成的损失的有效手段是抗旱节水农作物的选育和推广。然而抗旱节水农作物的选育首先依赖于对抗旱机制全面深入的理解。课题组前期工作中克隆的泛素结合酶UBC32是植物内质网相关的蛋白质降解 (ERAD) 的功能组分，并且受干旱、盐、冷等多种胁迫的诱导。近期结果显示UBC32过表达植物表现出明显的抗旱表型，说明UBC32是干旱途径中的正调控因子。质谱数据分析结果显示水通道蛋白PIP2;2与UBC32相互作用。本项目拟利用遗传学、生理学和分子生物学方法，深入研究UBC32对水通道蛋白的调控作用，解析UBC32参与干旱的机理。该研究将为ERAD参与胁迫响应提供直接证据，为选育抗旱节水农作物提供新的理论支持。

Plants are facing a variety of abiotic stresses during their life cycle, which seriously affect crops yields and qualities. With global warming, drought stress has become one of the most serious and frequent stresses, resulting in huge economic loss every year. The effective approach to alleviate the economic loss caused by drought stress is the use of drought resistance and water-saving crops. However, the breeding of drought resistance and water-saving crops highly rely on the comprehensive understanding of drought resistance mechanism. We previously reported UBC32, encoding an ubiquitin conjugating enzyme involved in ER-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway, was induced by drought stress, salt stress and cold stress. Recent results showed that the UBC32 overexpression seedlings have drought resistant phenotype, suggesting that UBC32 is a positive regulator in the drought response pathway. Furthermore, the aquaporin PIP2;2 was identified to interact with UBC32 by mass spectrometry assay. In this project, we will decipher the positive regulating mechanism of UBC32 in the drought pathway, especially the relationship between UBC32 and PIP2, using genetic, physiological and molecular biological methods. This research will provide direct evidence for the participation of ERAD system in stress responses and new theories to support the breeding of the drought resistance and water-saving crops.