Mechanisms of Plant Steroid Hormone Regulated Gene Expression in Arabidopsis

植物甾体激素类化合物在植物的生长发育和对环境胁迫的反应中起着重要作用。BR通过几种信号传导成分来调节BES 1/BZR 1和其他转录因子家族，这些转录因子家族反过来控制各种BR反应所需的约4000个基因的表达。BR调节的TF如何控制大量靶基因的表达和各种BR反应还没有很好的定义，这将是该提案的主要焦点。将通过反向遗传学和基因组学方法研究几种BR调节的转录因子（负责激活或失活基因的蛋白质）的功能和机制，并通过生化实验研究BR信号对它们的调节。结果将揭示每个BR调节的TF如何控制BR靶基因的子集和BR反应的一部分。这些研究还将为BR信号如何整合到复杂的转录网络中以控制各种BR调节过程提供重要的见解。所获得的知识可用于设计策略，以提高作物产量和对环境胁迫的耐受性。该项目产生的突变体和转基因株系将通过拟南芥信息资源提供。此外，大规模的基因表达数据将被存入NASC阵列或GEO数据集，以广泛传播。拟议的研究将产生对农业和生物能源至关重要的新知识，特别是在环境不断变化的情况下。此外，还将培训一名研究生、研究助理和高中教师，作为一个协调一致的团队开展拟议的实验。高中生物老师也将接受培训，把一些BR突变体带到高中生物课上。因此，该建议在培养未来的科学家和教育家方面具有巨大潜力。

Plant steroid hormones, Brassinosteroids (BRs), play important roles in plant growth, development and response to environmental stresses. BRs act through several signaling components to regulate BES1/BZR1 and other families of transcription factors (TFs), which in turn control the expression of about 4000 genes required for various BR responses. How BR-regulated TFs control the expression of the large number of target genes and various BR responses is not well defined and will be the main focus of the proposal. The functions and mechanisms of several BR-regulated transcription factors (proteins responsible for activating or inactivating genes) will be studied by reverse genetic and genomic approaches and their regulation by BR signaling will be investigated by biochemical experiments. The results will reveal how each of the BR-regulated TFs controls a subset of BR target genes and a portion of BR responses. The studies will also provide important insight into how BR signal is integrated into the complex transcriptional network to control various BR-regulated processes. The knowledge obtained can be used to design strategies to improve the crop yield and tolerance to environmental stresses. Both mutants and transgenic lines generated from the project will be made available through the Arabidopsis Information Resource. In addition, the large-scale gene expression data will be deposited into NASC Arrays or GEO Datasets for wide dissemination. The proposed research will generate new knowledge that is essential for agriculture and bioenergy, especially under the constant environmental changes. In addition, a graduate student, research assistant and high school teacher will be trained to carry out the proposed experiments as a coordinated and cohesive team. The high school biology teacher will also be trained to bring some of the BR mutants to high school biology classes. The proposal, therefore, has a great potential in training future scientists and educators.