Dissecting the CBL-CIPK Network in Plant Signal Transduction

植物不能移动，因此它们需要在现场应对环境变化。所有存活到今天的植物都学会了许多方法来适应环境变化，特别是影响它们生长和发育的压力条件。如果一个人了解植物是如何适应环境压力的，这种知识就可以用来改造对胁迫条件耐受性最强的植物--超级作物--从而使农业受益。该项目旨在找出植物对环境胁迫因子反应的分子机制。几乎所有的细胞外信号，包括植物激素、光、胁迫因子和致病或共生激发子，都能诱导钙(Ca~(2+))脉冲或瞬时信号，在进一步的信号过程中充当“第二信使”。由于不同的信号通常会引起不同的和特定的细胞反应，一个有趣的问题是细胞如何区分不同刺激产生的钙信使并做出相应的反应。研究表明，“感觉”和“解释”钙离子参数的信号成分是关键。最近的研究发现了一个新的钙离子感受器蛋白家族，它们在植物对胁迫信号的反应中发挥作用。这个钙传感器家族通过与蛋白激酶家族(CIPK)相互作用而发挥作用。这个项目将使用包括生化、细胞生物学、遗传学和基因组学工具在内的许多方法来了解CBL-CIPK网络是如何将信号从植物细胞的外部传递到内部的。这项研究将包括本科生，他们将在实验室学习第一手的生物学研究技能。此外，该项目还将培训高中生物教师，他们将在暑期参与实验室实验工作。这种外联活动将在K-12学校和大学研究实验室之间建立联系，并将把当前的研究课题带到K-12课堂。

Plants cannot move and therefore they need to deal with environmental changes on-site. All plants that survive to this day have learned many ways to adapt to environmental changes, especially stressful conditions that affect their growth and development. If one understands how plants adapt to environmental stress, such knowledge can be used to engineer plants with strongest tolerance to the stress conditions--supercrops--to benefit agriculture. This project aims to find out the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to environmental stress factors. Almost all extracellular signals, including plant hormones, light, stress factors, and pathogenic or symbiotic elicitors, can elicit Calcium (Ca2+) pulses or transients which serve as "second messengers" in further signaling processes. Because different signals often induce distinct and specific cellular responses, an interesting question is how cells distinguish the Ca2+ messengers produced by different stimuli and respond accordingly. Studies suggest that signaling components that "sense" and "interpret" the Ca2+ parameters hold the key. Recent studies identified a new family of Ca2+ sensor proteins (CBLs) that play a role in plant response to stress signals. This family of calcium sensors works by interacting with a family of protein kinases (CIPKs). This project will use a number of approaches including biochemical, cell biological, genetics, and genomics tools, to understand how this CBL-CIPK network transduces the signals from the outside to the inside of plant cells. This research will involve undergraduate students who will learn first-hand biological research skills in the lab. In addition, this project will be educating high school biology teachers who will participate in lab experimental work during the summer. Such outreach activity will provide a link between K-12 schools and university research labs and will bring current research topics to the K-12 classrooms.