Brassinosteroid-auxin synergism to dissect hormone response pathways in Arabidopsis

发育生物学中一个悬而未决的主要问题是动物或植物的最终大小是如何决定的。本研究探讨了激素在植物器官大小和高度调节中的作用。最近在P.I.的研究研究表明，植物激素生长素和油菜素类固醇（BRs）密切相关地调节幼苗生长。通过遗传学、基因组学和生理学分析，我们发现生长素和BR通路是相互关联的，这种整合可能发生在基因表达水平上。本项目将继续探索这种BR/生长素协同作用的潜在分子机制，并寻求发现BR和生长素调节生长的新因子。这些实验将探讨这些激素相互作用的机制，以调节基因表达、细胞扩增和分裂以及组织分化等多种反应的变化。长期目标是完全了解调节植物发育以应对不断变化的环境的信号网络，并将其与其他生物使用的策略联系起来。预期更广泛的影响是继续致力于研究生、研究生和本科教育，以及让高中生接触研究实验室环境。此外，要进行的计算分析允许访问公开可用的数据集，这些数据集对分子生物学社区来说是通用的，我们已经通过几个最近实施的网站提供了这些信息。因此，分析方法及其实施所产生的信息可能是宝贵的社区资源。

A major unanswered question in developmental biology is how the final size of an animal or plant is determined. This study explores the roles of hormones in regulating organ size and stature in plants. Recent studies in the P.I.'s laboratory indicate that the plant hormones auxin and brassinosteroids (BRs) act in close proximity to regulate seedling growth. Using genetics, genomics, and physiological analyses, it was shown that the auxin and BR pathways are interconnected and this integration is likely to occur at the level of gene expression. This project will continue to explore the underlying molecular mechanism of this BR/auxin synergism and seek to identify new factors involved in growth regulation by BRs and auxin. These experiments will address the mechanism by which these hormones interact to regulate such diverse responses as changes in gene expression, cell expansion and division, and tissue differentiation. The long-term objective is to completely understand the signaling networks that regulate plant development in response to an ever-changing environment, and to relate this to strategies used in other organisms. An anticipated broader impact is a continuing commitment to post-graduate, graduate, and undergraduate education, as well as exposure of high school students to a research laboratory setting. Also, the computational analyses to be carried out allow access to publicly available datasets that are of general use to the molecular biology community, and we have made the information available through several recently implemented websites. Consequently, the analytical methods and the information generated by their implementation may be a valuable community resource.