Hydrolyzable Tannin Biosynthesis in Plants

可水解单宁是一组植物多酚化合物，可作为抵抗微生物、昆虫和脊椎动物食草动物的化学防御。可水解单宁还影响土壤养分动态，并影响其他植物物种的发芽、生长和发育。除了赋予涩味的感觉，水解单宁还由于其抗氧化、抗癌和心脏保护活性而提高植物性食品的营养质量。尽管可水解单宁在植物和人类中发挥着重要的功能，但我们对植物中可水解单宁生物合成的分子和生化机制的理解仍然存在很大的差距。本计画将以草莓与石榴为模式系统，探讨水解单宁生物合成的关键酵素步骤。水解单宁生物合成基因的克隆将有助于改良植物组成以提高饲料作物的蛋白质利用率。支持水解单宁的生物发生也将拓宽我们对植物防御机制，以及植物-土壤和植物-植物（化感作用）相互作用的理解。更广泛的影响除了科学的影响，研究的各个方面将被用来提供多学科的培训机会，包括分子生物学，生物化学和细胞生物学，高中，本科和研究生，博士后学者。本科阶段的教育活动将集中在三个领域：为新的加州大学戴维斯分校转学生提供研究机会，促进女性和代表性不足的少数民族学生的职业机会，以及留住来自低收入家庭的学生。教育活动的另一个主要重点是为研究生和博士后学者未来在科学领域的独立职业做好准备。目前正在制定一项推广方案，通过在PI实验室实习，使高中生接触研究活动和生物技术应用。

Hydrolyzable tannins are a group of plant polyphenolic compounds that act as chemical defenses against microbes, insects and vertebrate herbivores. Hydrolyzable tannins also impact soil nutrient dynamics and affect the germination, growth and development of other plant species. Besides imparting astringent taste sensations, hydrolyzable tannins also enhance the nutritional quality of plant foods due to their antioxidant, anticancer and cardioprotective activities. Despite these important functions that hydrolyzable tannins play in plants and humans, large and significant gaps remain in our understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms underlying hydrolyzable tannin biosynthesis in plants. This project will investigate the key enzymatic steps leading to hydrolyzable tannin biosynthesis using strawberry and pomegranate as model systems. Cloning of hydrolyzable tannin biosynthetic genes will facilitate modification of plant composition for improved protein utilization in forage crops. Underpinning hydrolyzable tannin biogenesis will also broaden our understanding of plant defense mechanisms, as well as plant-soil and plant-plant (allelopathic) interactions. Broader ImpactsIn addition to the scientific impacts, various aspects of the research will be used to provide multidisciplinary training opportunities, encompassing molecular biology, biochemistry, and cell biology, to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars. The educational activities at the undergraduate level will be focused on three areas: providing research opportunities to new UC Davis transfer students, promoting career access among women and underrepresented minority students, and retaining students from low-income families. Another major focus of the educational activities is to prepare graduate students and postdoctoral scholars for their future independent careers in science. An outreach program is currently being developed to expose high school students to research activities and biotechnological applications through internships in the PI's laboratory.