Collaborative Research: RUI: The Role of Oligopeptide Transporters in Germinating Rice Seeds

植物种子的成功萌发依赖于营养物质从贮藏库向生长中的胚的转移。寡肽转运蛋白是存在于细胞膜中并将小蛋白转运到细胞中的蛋白质。本研究的中心问题是确定特定的寡肽转运蛋白是否在水稻种子萌发过程中起关键作用，将氨基酸从储存储备中有效快速地卸载到胚中进行蛋白质合成。生物化学和分子技术的组合将被用来确定每个单独的寡肽转运蛋白位于发芽种子，以确定每个转运蛋白动员的小蛋白的子集，并阐明每个转运蛋白是如何在发芽过程中被激活。这种方法将确定寡肽转运蛋白在种子萌发中发挥的作用，通过确定每种转运蛋白，它在哪里运输，以及它是如何激活的。这项工作的更广泛的影响是，它有可能通过增加我们对氨基酸卸载的理解来影响植物繁殖成功，并可能加强未来谷类作物的育种实践和转基因技术。此外，这项研究将有一个大的培训组成部分，因为大部分的工作将由本科研究人员在圣米迦勒学院，田纳西大学和纽约城市大学在斯塔顿岛工作完成。

Successful seed germination in plants relies upon the mobilization of nutrients from storage reserves to the growing embryo. Oligopeptide Transporters are proteins that reside in cell membranes and translocate small proteins into cells. The central question of this study is to determine if specific Oligopeptide Transporters play a key role in rice seed germination by unloading amino acids efficiently and rapidly from storage reserves to the embryo for protein synthesis. A combination of biochemical and molecular techniques will be used to ascertain where each individual Oligopeptide Transporter is located in the germinating seed, to determine the subset of small proteins that each transporter mobilizes, and to elucidate how each transporter is activated during germination. This approach will identify the contribution that Oligopeptide Transporters play in seed germination by identifying what each transports, where it transports, and how it is activated. The broader impact of this work is that it has the potential to affect plant reproductive success through increasing our understanding of amino acid unloading and could enhance future breeding practices and transgenic technologies in cereal crops. Furthermore, this study will have a large training component since the majority of the work will be completed by undergraduate researchers working at Saint Michael's College, the University of Tennessee, and City University of New York at Staten Island.