Arabidopsis 2010:The Arabidopsis RPM1 Signaling Network: A paradigm for NBS-LRR mediated plant disease resistance.

智力优点：植物生产力因感染而降低。许多病原体导致植物收成损失。病原体造成的总产量损失可高达30%。植物已经进化出一种免疫系统，与人类等动物非常不同。这主要是因为植物没有循环细胞，而人类等动物则相反。参考植物物种拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）是用于解剖植物免疫系统的分子机制的极好的实验系统。这个拟南芥2010项目使用多学科方法来确定植物免疫系统中网络基因的功能。所讨论的网络包括抗病蛋白的核苷酸结合位点-亮氨酸-富含重复序列（NB-LRR）类别的成员，以及调节其功能的其他蛋白质。NB-LRR蛋白是植物免疫系统中的关键参与者。该项目结合了基因组学，遗传学，细胞生物学和生物化学，以了解NB-LRR蛋白在感染前如何组装成信号活性形式，以及它们的作用如何被植物病原体产生的蛋白质触发。对拟南芥NB-LRR蛋白的研究已经导致了这样的概念，即它们的部分活性被引导用于监测其他宿主细胞机器的细胞完整性。该提案还关注这些重要的细胞成分之一，RIN 4蛋白。RIN 4与其他几种拟南芥蛋白共享一个未知功能的小植物特异性结构域，称为NOI。还将研究这种植物特异性蛋白质家族。更广泛的影响：拟南芥的研究使我们对植物免疫系统有了新的认识，这些开创性的发现已经并将继续扩展到作物物种研究中。因此，拟南芥的研究是有用的研究几乎所有类别的病原体是农艺学相关的。因此，该研究项目的更广泛影响是，其结果将为作物物种的翻译提供重要信息。事实上，这已经开始克隆和利用最早在拟南芥中发现的作物相关基因。遗传学，分子生物学，生物化学和细胞生物学的使用使该项目成为从本科到博士后水平的科学家的绝佳培训基地。本研究项目中调查的主题被纳入PI教授的“宿主-微生物相互作用策略”课程。PI的实验室积极寻求让本科生参与研究项目，PI参与与本研究主题直接相关的公共政策和公共辩论。

Intellectual merit: Plant productivity is reduced by infection. Many pathogens contribute to loss of plant harvest. Overall yield losses to pathogens can be as high as 30%. Plants have evolved an immune system that is very different from animals like humans. This is mostly driven by the fact that plants have no circulating cells, in contrast to animals like humans. The reference plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, is an excellent experimental system for dissection of the molecular machinery of the plant immune system. This Arabidopsis 2010 project uses a multidisciplinary approach to determine the function for a network genes in the plant immune system. The network in question includes members of the Nucleotide Binding site-Leucine-Rich-Repeat (NB-LRR) class of disease resistance proteins, and additional proteins that regulate their function. The NB-LRR proteins are the key players in the plant immune system. This project combines genomics, genetics, cell biology and biochemistry to understand how NB-LRR proteins are assembled into signal competent form before infection, and how their action is triggered by proteins produced by plant pathogens. The study of NB-LRR proteins in Arabidopsis has led to the notion that part of their activity is guided toward monitoring the cellular integrity of other host cellular machines. This proposal focuses also one of those important cellular components, the RIN4 protein. RIN4 shares a small plant-specific domain of unknown function, called NOI, with several other Arabidopsis proteins. This plant-specific protein family will also be studied. Broader impacts: Arabidopsis research has led to our current understanding of the plant immune system, and these seminal findings have, and will continue to be, expanded into crop species research. Therefore, Arabidopsis research is useful for studies of nearly all classes of pathogens that are agronomically relevant. Hence, the broader impacts of this research project are that the results will significantly inform translation to crop species. In fact, this has already begun with the cloning and utilization of the relevant genes from crops that were first identified in Arabidopsis. The use of genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology makes this project an excellent training ground for scientists from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels. Topics investigated in this research project are incorporated into a course taught by the PI on "Strategies of Host-Microbe Interactions". The PI's lab has actively sought to engage undergraduates in research projects and the PI is involved in public policy and public debates directly related to the topics of this research.