Gravitropic signal transduction: a network approach to identifying regulatory mechanisms

重力在植物生长发育中起着重要作用，它控制着萌发时地上部和根部的生长方向，控制器官捕捉光线的位置，吸收养分，并促进授粉和种子的传播。在整个进化过程中，植物与重力相互作用，适应并改变了它们对重力的反应，作为人类，我们根据这些反应选择了农业和园艺植物。为了简单起见，生理反应通路被分为三个连续的步骤：感知、信号转导和反应。重力感知事件和导致重力反应的机制已经被很好地定义，但信号转导事件在很大程度上仍然是一个“黑匣子”。利用一种被称为重力持续信号(GPS)反应的冷效应，已经开发出一种突变筛选，以特定地识别信号转导途径的组成部分。GPS突变体已经为重力信号转导途径提供了新的见解。该项目将GPS响应与基因表达微阵列、蛋白质组学分析和持续突变分析相结合，以确定导致适应重力变化的分子网络。这些数据将被用来建立一个计算机生成的模型(重力信号特定的交互作用组)，以确定用于假设开发和测试的候选基因/蛋白质。除了为补充现有的植物向重力性模型提供新的基本信息外，这项研究的结果还可能导致改进收获能力、收获后处理的创新，或者导致更适合人类需求的新植物品种。PI致力于教育和外展，并将她的研究作为这些互动的起点，并预计目前的项目将为几名本科生和研究生提供更多的研究和培训机会。它还将为一种新颖的、类似电脑游戏的、关于基因如何相互作用的教学工具提供基础。

Gravity plays a fundamental role in plant growth and development, controlling the direction of shoot and root growth at germination, positioning of organs for light capture, nutrient absorption and to facilitate pollination and seed dispersal. Plants have interacted with, adapted to and modified their responses to gravity throughout evolution, and we, as humans, have selected plants for agriculture and horticulture based on these responses. For simplicity, the physiological response pathways have been separated into three sequential steps: perception, signal transduction, and response. The events of gravity perception and the mechanisms resulting in the gravity response are fairly well defined, but the events of signal transduction remain, for the most part, a "black box." Using a cold effect, dubbed the gravity persistent signal (GPS) response, a mutant screen has been developed toidentify specifically components of the signal transduction pathway. The gps mutants have already provided new insights into the gravity signal transduction pathway. This project combines the GPS response with gene expression microarrays, proteomics analysis, and continued mutant analysis to identified molecular networks that result in adaptations to changes in gravity. The data will be used to build a computer-generated model (a gravity signaling-specific interactome) to identify candidate genes/proteins for hypothesis development and testing. Besides providing new, fundamental information to supplement existing models of plant gravitropism, the outcomes of this research could lead to innovations to improve harvesting capability, post-harvest handling, or lead to new plant varieties that better suit human needs. The PI is dedicated to education and outreach and uses her research as a launching point for those interactions and anticipates that the current project will provide additional research and training opportunities for several undergraduates and graduate students. It will also provide the foundation for a novel, computer-game like, teaching tool on how genes interact.