Ultrafast Omics Reveals Key Players in the Response of Plants to Abiotic Stress

在田间条件下，环境胁迫如热或光胁迫可对植物生长和产量产生破坏性影响。尽管人们对介导植物对这些胁迫的反应的不同信号事件了解很多，但对胁迫开始后几秒钟或几分钟内植物中发生的快速变化几乎一无所知。主要研究者的实验室最近的研究确定了600多个不同的基因，包括30个假定的新的拟南芥基因，这些基因在几秒钟内对非生物胁迫做出反应。这些反应中的一些发生在受影响的组织，以及在组织中，没有直接受到压力，包括代谢产物和转录物在非生物胁迫耐受性的重要功能。有趣的是，许多这些超快反应在活性氧信号转导受损的突变体中发生了改变，这些突变体更容易受到胁迫的影响，这表明活性氧、超快反应和植物驯化是密切相关的。该项目的假设是，在胁迫开始后数秒或数分钟内发生在植物中的超快分子和生理变化为许多已知的信号传导事件奠定了基础，这些事件协调了对环境胁迫的适应反应的激活，并影响植物生长和生产力。这项研究将突出植物非生物胁迫反应的一个未知方面，即对胁迫的超快分子和代谢反应。这可能会对我们看待和理解非生物胁迫及其对植物代谢的影响产生巨大的变革性影响。从这项研究中获得的结果可能导致开发新的和新颖的方法，以提高作物对当地和/或全球气候变化的耐受性，使用以前没有考虑或已知的途径和化合物。这项研究还可以确定新的抗氧化剂和其他化合物，以减少压力对细胞功能的影响。这些可能对许多不同的生物化学和医学领域产生重大影响。拟议项目将为1名博士后研究员、1名研究生、4名本科生和12名高中生（包括少数民族学生）提供培训。基于outreach的学习模块，重点是农业对我们社会的重要性，气候变化对农业的影响，使用遗传工具来改善作物，以及使用先进的成像工具来研究植物生物学，将由PI通过榆树叉教育中心和榆树叉自然遗产博物馆提供的外展计划向K-12学生提供。这些计划也将提供给全国的K-12教师。

Environmental stresses such as heat or light stress can have a devastating impact on plant growth and yield under field conditions. Although much is known about the different signaling events that mediate plant responses to these stresses, virtually nothing is known about the rapid changes that occur in plants within seconds or minutes of stress initiation. Recent studies from the principal investigator's laboratories identified over 600 different genes, including 30 putative new Arabidopsis genes that respond to abiotic stress within seconds. Some of these responses occurred at the affected tissue as well as in tissues that were not directly subjected to stress and included metabolites and transcripts with important function in abiotic stress tolerance. Interestingly, many of these ultrafast responses were altered in mutants impaired in reactive oxygen signaling, which were more susceptible to stress, indicating that reactive oxygen species, ultrafast responses and plant acclimation are intimately linked. The hypothesis in this project is that the ultrafast molecular and physiological alterations that occur in plants within seconds or minutes of stress initiation set the stage for many of the known signaling events that orchestrate the activation of acclimation responses to environmental stresses and impact plant growth and productivity. The proposed research will highlight an unknown aspect of the plant abiotic stress response, namely ultrafast molecular and metabolic responses to stress. This could have a dramatic and transformative impact on the way we view and understand abiotic stress and its effects on plant metabolism. Results obtained from this study could lead to the development of new and novel approaches to enhance the tolerance of crops to local and/or global climatic changes using pathways and compounds that were not previously considered or known. The proposed study could also identify novel antioxidants and other compounds that function to reduce the effects of stress on cellular function. These could have a significant impact on many different biochemical and medical fields. The proposed project will provide training to 1 postdoctoral fellow, 1 graduate student, 4 undergraduates and 12 high school students including minorities. Outreach-based learning modules focusing on the importance of agriculture to our society, the effect of climatic change on agriculture, the use of genetic tools to improve crops, and the use of advanced imaging tools to study plant biology will be offered by the PIs to K-12 students through the outreach programs offered by the Elm Fork Education Center and the Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum. These programs will also be offered to K-12 teachers nationwide.