Identifying components in the SFR6 pathway controlling cold acclimation and drought tolerance

我们实验室的研究旨在更多地了解植物如何耐受冰冻温度和干旱条件。这两个都是这个国家以及世界范围内作物的重要属性，能够承受这种不利条件的作物可以产生更高的产量，并且可以在更广泛的地区种植，提高其农业价值。和人类一样，植物拥有数千个决定其属性的基因，包括它们科普环境的能力。我们已经在模式植物拟南芥中发现了一个基因，它使这种植物能够耐受冷冻温度和脱水条件，否则会导致死亡。我们称这个基因为SFR 6。我们已经证明了“sfr 6突变体植物”（具有缺陷SFR 6基因的植物）失去了对冷冻和干旱条件（环境胁迫）的耐受性，这一结果表明SFR 6基因是多么重要。我们之前对这些有缺陷的突变植物的研究已经确定了它们无法应对寒冷和干旱的原因：SFR 6对许多其他基因有影响，这些基因在正常植物中的作用是保护它免受这些不利的环境条件的影响。当SFR 6缺失/或只是有缺陷时-这些其他保护基因无法执行其通常的功能。在这项新的研究计划中，我们要解决的问题是：SFR 6如何影响大量与环境胁迫耐受性相关的保护基因？“每一个基因（无论是来自植物还是动物）都有助于产生特定的蛋白质。SFR 6基因指导植物产生SFR 6蛋白。通过了解组成SFR 6基因的遗传密码（我们去年发现了这一点），我们可以预测SFR 6蛋白的样子，但是，我们无法预测它将如何工作。在这个项目中，我们的目标是发现SFR 6蛋白在植物细胞中的位置，以及它在做什么。植物细胞的不同部分都有自己的专门功能，如果我们在特定的地方发现SFR 6，这将指导我们识别SFR 6蛋白质正在做的工作类型。为了对植物产生任何影响，SFR 6蛋白必须与细胞中的其他分子相互作用，以使它们发挥作用。我们在这里提出了一个选择的技术，涉及从植物细胞中提取SFR 6蛋白，并检查它是什么连接。任何附着在SFR 6上的分子都很可能是它需要影响其行为的分子，以实现其对耐寒性和耐旱性的影响。最后，我们知道SFR 6基因的缺陷导致拟南芥植物丧失环境胁迫耐受性。我们的目标是提出两个与此观察相关的进一步问题。首先，我们是否可以通过提高SFR 6蛋白的产量来提高拟南芥的抗逆性？其次，如果可能的话，我们是否可以将这种特性转移到英国和世界各地种植的经济相关作物物种中？我们提案最后一部分描述的实验将解决这些问题。

Research in our laboratory is directed towards learning more about how plants tolerate freezing temperatures and drought conditions. Both of these are very important attributes for crop plants in this country as well as worldwide, and crops with the ability to withstand such unfavourable conditions can produce higher yields and can be grown in a wider range of locations improving their value to agriculture. Like humans, plants possess thousands of genes that determine their attributes, including their ability to cope with the environment in which they find themselves. We have discovered a gene in the model plant Arabidopsis which enables this plant to tolerate freezing temperatures and dehydrating conditions that would otherwise lead to death. We have called this gene SFR6. We have shown that 'sfr6 mutant plants' (plants with a defective SFR6 gene) lose their tolerance of freezing and drought conditions (environmental stress), a result that demonstrates how important the SFR6 gene is. Our previous work with these defective mutant plants has identified the reason for their inability to deal with cold and drought: SFR6 has an effect on numerous other genes whose roles in a normal plant are to protect it against these unfavourable environmental conditions. When SFR6 is missing /or simply defective- these other protective genes are unable to carry out their usual function. The question addressed in this new research proposal, is 'how does SFR6 influence this large number of protective genes associated with environmental stress tolerance?' Every gene (be it from a plant or an animal) facilitates the production of a specific protein. The SFR6 gene instructs the plant to produce the SFR6 protein. By knowing the genetic code that makes up the SFR6 gene (we discovered this last year), we can predict what the SFR6 protein will look like, however, we cannot predict how it will work. In this project we aim to discover whereabouts in the plant cell the SFR6 protein can be found, and what it is doing. Different parts of a plant cell have their own specialised function, and if we find SFR6 in a particular place, this will direct us towards identifying the type of job that the SFR6 protein is doing. In order to have any effect at all on the plant, the SFR6 protein must interact with other molecules in the cell in order to make them work. We propose here a selection of techniques which involve extracting SFR6 protein from a plant cell and examining what it is attached to. Any molecules found attached to SFR6 are most likely to be the molecules whose behaviour it needs to influence, in order to achieve its effects on cold and drought tolerance. Finally, we know that a defect in the SFR6 gene leads to a loss of environmental stress tolerance in Arabidopsis plants. We aim to ask 2 further questions related to this observation. Firstly, can we INCREASE stress tolerance in Arabidopsis by elevating the production of SFR6 protein and secondly, if this is possible, can we transfer this attribute to economically relevant crop species grown in the UK and throughout the world? The experiments described in the final part of our proposal will address these questions.