Research Initiation Award: SIGNAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN LIGHT AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSES IN PLANTS

奥尔巴尼州立大学的研究启动奖题为--植物中光和其他环境反应之间的信号相互作用--将解决如何利用拟南芥作为模型系统在生物体中整合不同信号的问题。大多数生物学研究都集中在对单一刺激的反应上。然而，越来越多的证据表明，对不同刺激的反应可能会相互干扰并相互影响。该项目将在两个因素可变的条件下进行各种形态和生理特征表征，以确定表型水平上的反应交互作用。然后，将利用存在光或胁迫信号缺陷的现有突变体进行类似的表型和分子分析，以确定信号通路中的相互作用点。该项目的长期目标和潜在应用是通过揭示环境胁迫耐受性的增强如何限制影响生产力的植物光反应来促进作物育种，从而提高作物的耐旱性、耐热性、耐寒性和耐盐性。从研究中获得的信息有可能加强我们对植物生存和生产力的知识。本科生将接触到各种实验方法，从表型表征到分子研究，再到遗传/基因组水平分析。他们将学习如何统计分析和验证科学数据，并在科学会议上发布和展示他们的结果。

Albany State University's Research Initiation Award entitled - Signal Interactions Between Light and Other Environmental Responses in Plants - will address the question of how the integration of different signals takes place in an organism using Arabidopsis as a model system. Most biological studies focus on responses to a single stimulus. However, growing evidence suggests that responses to different stimuli can crosstalk and affect each other. The project will conduct various morphological and physiological characterizations under two factor variable conditions to identify response interaction at the phenotypic level. Then similar phenotypic and molecular analyses will be carried out using existing mutants with defects in light or stress signaling to identify the interaction point in the signaling pathways. Microarray analysis and real-time RT-PCR will be carried out to investigate the interaction at the gene expression level using plant samples grown under two factor variable conditions.The long-term goal and the potential application of the project is to facilitate the breeding of crop plants for improved drought, heat, cold, and salt tolerance by uncovering how enhancements in environmental stress tolerance constrain plant light response that affects productivity, and vice versa. The information obtained from the research has the potential to strengthen our knowledge of plant survival and productivity. Undergraduate students will be exposed to a variety of experimental approaches from phenotypic characterization to molecular study and to genetic/genomic level analysis. They will learn how to analyze and validate scientific data statistically, and publish and present their results at scientific meetings.