Plant Energy Metabolism and Carbon/Nitrogen Assimilation

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。植物获得的太阳能为植物组织内的主要代谢途径(如光合作用、光呼吸、呼吸和氮同化)提供所需的能量。尽管这些代谢过程很重要，但对植物碳氮同化如何与植物能量代谢相互作用仍存在很大的认识差距。氮素有效性低是限制光合作用生产率的主要因素之一，农业系统目前仅靠大量的氮基化学投入维持。这些投入的过度使用和随之而来的径流导致了严重的环境退化，这些氮基肥料的生产释放了大量温室气体，导致了进一步的环境变化。因此，了解控制碳和氮同化的机制以及气候条件的变化将如何影响这些过程，对于预测光合作用生物对气候变化以及未来粮食和能源供应的反馈效应至关重要。反向遗传学、叶片气体交换、养分吸收/摄食实验和质谱学测量将被用来了解叶片代谢关键步骤的中断如何影响这些代谢过程之间的能量流协调。高中生、本科生、研究生和博士后将学习植物生物学的综合方法，扩大他们在科学研究方面的培训和学习机会。此外，华盛顿州立大学(WSU)和当地高中之间将建立新的合作伙伴关系，为年轻学生在教育培训早期提供更多接触科学过程的机会。调查人员的目标是通过促进西澳州立大学代表不足的少数族裔和妇女的研究机会的大学方案，增加代表不足的本科生和研究生在实验室的参与。此外，还将开发网站，向更广泛的受众展示这项研究的成果。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." Solar energy harvested by plants provides the energy required for the major metabolic pathways within plant tissue (e.g. photosynthesis, photorespiration, respiration and nitrogen assimilation). Despite the importance of these metabolic processes, there are large gaps of understanding in how plant carbon and nitrogen assimilation interact with plant energy metabolism. Low nitrogen availability is one of the major factors limiting photosynthetic productivity and agricultural systems are currently sustained only by enormous nitrogen based chemical inputs. The over-application and ensuing runoff of these inputs leads to significant environmental degradation, and the production of these nitrogen based fertilizers releases vast amounts of greenhouse gases leading to further environmental change. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms controlling carbon and nitrogen assimilation and how changing climatic conditions will influence these processes is essential for predicting the feedback effects of photosynthetic organisms on climate change as well as future food and energy supplies. Reverse genetics, leaf gas exchange, nutrient uptake/feeding experiments, and mass spectrometry measurements will be used to understand how disruptions of key steps in leaf metabolism influence the coordination of energy flow between these metabolic processes. High school, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students will be taught integrative approaches to plant biology, broadening their training and learning opportunities in scientific research. Additionally, new partnerships between Washington State University (WSU) and local high schools will be formed, providing young students with greater access to the scientific process early in their educational training. The investigators aim to increase the participation of underrepresented undergraduates and graduate students in the laboratory through university programs promoting research opportunities for under-represented minorities and women at WSU. Additionally, websites will be developed to present the outcomes of this research to a broader audience.