Deciphering the Symbiotic Calcium Code: The activation of CCaMK

植物必须从环境中获取营养，这导致了肥料的使用增加。这种方法不是农业的可持续途径，需要开发替代方法以满足未来的作物需求。然而，大量的植物已经发展出通过与细菌和真菌共生来获得营养的策略。豆科植物与固氮细菌的共生体以氨的形式为植物提供氮。与真菌的共生体为植物提供磷、其他元素和水。植物研究的一个圣杯将是利用我们对植物如何协调和促进这些有益相互作用的理解，以生产出不太依赖肥料的作物。这个过程的一个关键部分是信号的产生和解码，这些信号告诉植物该做什么。这些信息隐藏在钙振荡中。该项目的目的是了解这些钙振荡如何导致蛋白质的激活，从而决定植物应该如何发育。以前的研究表明，一种酶，蛋白激酶，可能会解码这些钙振荡，从而提出了一个问题，同一个信使如何能够强大地决定不同的反应？因此，一个关键问题是钙振荡如何激活这种植物特异性蛋白激酶。在这个建议中，我们将确定的机制，激酶的模式豆科植物（苜蓿）解码振荡钙反应。我们将通过多学科的方法实现这一目标，使用高分辨率成像与数学建模和相关组件的详细生物化学研究相结合的根毛内的钙。

Plants must acquire their nutrition from their environment and this has led to the increased use of fertilizers. This approach is not a sustainable route for agriculture and alternative methods need to be developed to meet future crop demands. A large number of plants, however, have already developed strategies for obtaining their nutrition via symbioses with bacteria and fungi. Symbioses of legumes with nitrogen fixing bacteria provide the plant with nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Symbioses with fungi provide the plant with phosphorous, other elements, and water. A holy grail of plant research would be to exploit our understanding of how plants coordinate and promote these beneficial interactions to produce crops that are less reliant on fertilizers. A key part of this process is the generation and decoding of signals that tell the plant what to do. These messages are hidden in calcium oscillations. The aim of this project is to understand how these calcium oscillations lead to the activation of proteins that determine how the plant should develop. Previous studies suggest that an enzyme, protein kinase, may decode these calcium oscillations, thus raising the question how can the same messenger robustly determine different responses? A key question is therefore how calcium oscillations can activate this plant-specific protein kinase. In this proposal we will determine the mechanisms by which the kinase of a model legume (Medicago truncatula) decodes the oscillatory calcium responses. We will achieve this through a multidisciplinary approach using a combination of high resolution imaging of calcium within a root hair with mathematical modelling and detailed biochemical studies of the relevant components.