Molecular Bases of Antioxidant Responses in Arabidopsis

弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学植物病理学、生理学和杂草科学系的Ruth Alscher正在申请在密歇根州立大学校园内的美国能源部/密歇根州立大学植物研究实验室工作一年，该实验室位于克里斯·萨默维尔博士的实验室。她的研究项目的标题将是《拟南芥抗氧化反应的分子基础》。在绿叶细胞中防御氧化胁迫的机制将在拟南芥中进行研究，特别是与抗性相关的三种叶绿体蛋白的产生，其遗传可能受到协调控制。这些抗氧化防御蛋白与许多不同的胁迫有关，包括干旱、极端温度、除草剂和空气污染物。PI将利用Sommerville博士实验室的专业知识和资源来研究暴露在压力下对基因表达的影响，识别对氧化应激敏感的突变，并研究导致基因表达变化的信号传递过程。一个主要的焦点将是开发一种分子克隆策略来识别编码抗氧化质蛋白的基因。在绿色植物细胞的应激反应的分子方面进行一年的集中研究将使PI能够朝着她的目标前进，她的目标是了解光合作用组织对氧化应激的不同抗性的分子遗传学基础。

Ruth Alscher, of the Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology and Weed Science at Virginia Polytechnic and State University is applying to spend a year at the DOE/MSU Plant Research Laboratory on the Michigan State University campus in the laboratory of Dr. Chris Somerville. The title of her research project will be Molecular bases of antioxidant responses in Arabidopsis. The mechanisms in green leaf cells which protect against oxidative stress will be studied in Arabidopsis, in particular the production of three plastid proteins specifically associated with resistance whose inheritance may be coordinately controlled. These antioxidant defense proteins have been implicated in resistance to a number of different stresses, including drought, extremes of temperature, herbicides and air pollutants. The PI will avail herself of the expertise and resources of Dr. Sommerville's laboratory to study effects of exposure to stress on gene expression, to identify mutants with a altered sensitivity to oxidative stress and to study the signalling process by which altered gene expressioning is brought about. One principal focus will be the development of a molecular cloning strategy to identify the genes which encode the antioxidant plastid proteins. A year of concentration in the molecular aspects of stress responses in green plant cells will enable the PI to progress towards her goal of understanding the basis in molecular genetics of differential resistance to oxidative stress in photosynthetic tissue.