Light-independent sugar signalling in Arabidopsis

糖代谢是一个基本的生物过程，提供能量和分子构建模块来维持我们星球上的生命。“绿色生物”，如植物和藻类，利用来自太阳的光能将二氧化碳转化为以糖的形式储存的能量，同时产生我们呼吸的氧气。这个过程被称为光合作用，可能是地球上最重要的代谢过程。生活在“原始汤”中的光合生物产生了氧气，导致了25亿年前的大氧化事件，促进了大规模的进化进步。植物是这些生物体的后代之一，它们继续提供维持生命所需的大部分能量。因此，研究植物如何感知和响应糖是生物学中一个非常重要的研究问题。通过更好地了解这些过程，我们可以获得有价值的见解，并开发工具来提高农业的效率和总生产力，以养活世界各地不断增长的人口。由于光合作用依赖于光，因此必须对其进行有效调控，以优化日光的利用。糖必须运输到不能进行光合作用的组织，以满足其能量需求，并适当储存以持续过夜。此外，随着日照长度和季节的变化，植物需要能够适应环境的变化，同时保持最佳的碳水化合物代谢。这些过程的协调需要植物的机制来感知和响应糖的可用性。在植物糖生产中对光的需求增加了复杂性，这是理解光合生物中这些内源糖信号传导途径的关键考虑因素。例如，当光合作用活跃时，很难解释光中糖的影响。关于这些过程中的基本机制，仍有许多需要了解的地方。本研究的主要目的是确定模式植物拟南芥中糖信号的新组分。一种新的，敏感的测定已经开发出来，以调查糖反应，在植物中的光信号独立的行为。该测定将用于鉴定有助于对糖的光依赖性反应的基因，并确定这些基因在各种生理相关生长环境中的功能。最终，这项研究的目标是深入了解植物如何整合糖和光信号，以优化光合效率和生长。这项工作将使用一系列遗传和分子方法，利用最先进的技术来获得有关这些过程影响的全基因组信息。

Sugar metabolism is a fundamental biological process providing energy and the molecular building blocks to sustain life on our planet. 'Green organisms', such as plants and algae, use light energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide into stored energy in the form of sugars while producing the oxygen we breathe. This process, known as photosynthesis, is probably the most important metabolic process on the planet. Photosynthetic organisms living in the 'primordial soup' produced the oxygen which gave rise to the Great Oxidation Event ~2.5 billion years ago, facilitating a massive evolutionary advance. Plants are among the descendants of these organisms, which continue to provide most of the energy necessary to sustain life today. Therefore, investigating how plants sense and respond to sugars is a fundamentally important research question in biology. Through improved understanding of these processes, we can gain valuable insight and develop tools to improve efficiency and total productivity of agriculture to feed the growing population around the world.Since photosynthesis depends on light, it must be effectively regulated to optimise use of daylight. Sugars must be transported to tissues that cannot photosynthesise to meet their energy needs and stored appropriately to last the night. Furthermore, as daylength and seasons change, plants need to be able to adapt to the changes in environment while maintaining optimal carbohydrate metabolism. Coordination of these processes requires mechanisms for plants to sense and respond to sugar availability. The requirement for light in sugar production in plants adds complexity that is a critical consideration to understand these endogenous sugar signalling pathways in photosynthetic organisms. For example, it is difficult to interpret effects of sugars in the light when photosynthesis is active. There is still much to be learned about the underlying mechanisms in these processes. The main objective of this research is to identify novel components of sugar signalling in the model plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana. A novel, sensitive assay has been developed to investigate sugar responses that act independently of light signalling in plants. This assay will be used to identify genes that contribute to light-independent responses to sugars and determine the function of these genes in the context of various, physiologically relevant growth environments. Ultimately, the goal of this research is gain insight into how plants integrate sugar and light signals to optimise photosynthetic efficiency and growth. This work will use a range of genetic and molecular approaches, utilising state-of-the-art technologies to gain genome-wide information about the impacts of these processes.