Understanding Regulatory Mechanisms of ERF/AP2 Transcription Factor Activity in Higher Plants

智力上的优点。固着植物的生长依赖于细胞对环境变化的准确和及时的反应。面对全球气候变化，这正在导致温度和降水进一步的区域极端[例如，更多的极端高温，更少的极端寒冷，严重的干旱，洪水(哥本哈根诊断，2009年)]，了解植物如何实现逆境耐受将变得越来越重要。细胞对环境变化的反应依赖于转录因子，并由转录因子促进，转录因子通过激活或抑制基因表达作为反应媒介。已经证明转录因子可以通过泛素蛋白酶体途径来调节。在真核细胞中，这种高度保守的系统有助于蛋白质底物的识别和降解。AP2/ERF家族是植物特有的一个主要转录因子家族，在植物的发育和非生物胁迫(干旱、高温、寒冷和盐度)的耐受中起着关键作用。最近的研究表明，这个家族的成员可以与一组称为BPM的适配器蛋白相互作用，这些蛋白组装成一个复合体，参与识别和标记蛋白酶体降解的底物。本项目将研究BPM底物适配器如何调控AP2/ERF转录因子，以及由此对植物发育过程和逆境反应的影响。本项目的具体目标是：1)确定BPM与ERF/AP2转录因子组装的特异性，包括相互作用模式和位置；2)确定BPM-ERF/AP2相互作用如何调节转录活性；3)确定BPM功能对植物表型的影响。总体而言，这项工作将产生关于影响植物转录活动的新调控机制的新知识。此外，由于BPM蛋白在动物中有同源基因，这一知识将适用于广泛的领域。由于全球环境的快速变化，有关监管过程如何影响工厂绩效的知识变得越来越重要。这项拟议的工作将加深我们对基因表达调控如何影响植物生长和抗逆性的理解。由于跨越生命王国的蛋白酶体降解途径的保守性，拟议的工作有可能提供与广泛科学界相关的新的跨学科信息。该项目将通过建立在现有知识库的基础上并通过直接让学生参与研究来影响学生的教育。除了培训研究生和研究生外，它还将促进对本科生的培训，重点是招收代表性不足的少数民族。本科生将能够在这个项目的框架内完成较小的目标。他们将学习广泛的技术方法，并将参与关于他们的研究及其与目前外地工作的关系的广泛讨论。该项目还将使学生有机会在威斯康星州立大学的校园活动中传播他们的成果，例如威斯康星州立大学年度本科生海报大赛和威斯康星州立大学展示活动，或在全国会议上传播他们的成果。总体而言，该项目将为学生提供宝贵的经验，这对他们未来的科学职业生涯很重要。因此，在促进我们对植物分子机制的理解的同时，该项目将有力地促进学生的教学和培训，从而也将产生广泛的、积极的社会和教育影响。

Intellectual merit. Growth of sessile plants depends on accurate and timely cellular responses to environmental changes. In the face of global climate change, which is leading to further regional extremes in temperature and precipitation [e.g. more hot extremes, fewer cold extremes, severe drought, flooding (The Copenhagen Diagnosis, 2009)], understanding how plants achieve stress tolerance will become ever more important. Cellular responses to environmental change depend on and are facilitated by transcription factors that serve as response mediators by activating or repressing gene expression. It has been demonstrated that transcription factors can be regulated through the ubiquitin proteasome pathway. This highly conserved system in eukaryotic cells facilitates recognition and degradation of protein substrates. A major transcription factor family specific to plants, which plays a key role in development and abiotic stress tolerance (drought, heat, cold, and salinity) is represented by the AP2/ERF family. Recent work has shown that members of this family can interact with a set of adapter proteins, called BPMs, which are known to assemble into a complex that participates in recognition and tagging of substrates for proteasomal degradation. This project will study how BPM substrate adaptors act to regulate AP2/ERF transcription factors and the resulting impacts on developmental processes and stress responses in plants. The specific aims of this project are 1) to determine the specificity of BPM assembly with ERF/AP2 transcription factors, including interaction patterns and locations, 2) to determine how BPM-ERF/AP2 interaction may mediate transcriptional activity and 3) to determine the impact of BPM function on plant phenotype. Overall, the work will generate new knowledge about novel regulatory mechanisms affecting transcriptional activities in plants. In addition, because the BPM proteins have orthologs in animals, this knowledge will be applicable across a broad range of fields.Broader impacts. Due to the rapidly changing environment across the globe, knowledge of how regulatory processes affect plant performance becomes increasingly important. The proposed work will further our understanding of how the control of gene expression impacts plant growth and stress resistance. Due to the conserved nature of the proteasome degradation pathway across kingdoms of life, the proposed work has the potential to provide new, interdisciplinary information relevant to a broad scientific community. This project will impact student education by both building on the current knowledge base and by directly involving students in the research. Besides training graduate and postgraduate students, it will foster training of undergraduate students with an emphasis on the recruitment of underrepresented minorities. The undergraduate students will be able to accomplish smaller objectives within the framework of this project. They will learn a wide range of technical approaches and will be involved in extensive discussions about their research and how it relates to the current work in the field. The project will also give students the opportunity to disseminate their results during WSU campus activities, such as the WSU Annual Undergraduate Student Poster Competition and the WSU Showcase, or at national meetings. In general, the project will provide students with a valuable experience, important for their future careers in the sciences. Hence, while advancing our understanding of molecular mechanisms in plants, the project will strongly promote student teaching and training and will thereby also have broad, positive societal and educational impacts.