Improving Plant Nutrition via Nuclear Calcium Signalling

氮(N)是植物生长所需的一种重要的矿质元素。植物吸收土壤中无机形态的氮（主要是硝酸盐），并将其同化为各种含氮有机化合物的生物合成。氮是最昂贵的营养物之一，商业硝酸盐肥料是作物生产的主要成本。矛盾的是，据估计，提供给土壤的氮有50-70%流失了，导致土壤和水污染，并通过排放一氧化二氮导致全球变暖。降低肥料投入，培育氮素利用效率较高的作物是植物营养研究的主要目标之一。该项目将在硝酸盐信号、核钙和根结构发育之间的十字路口定义一个新的调控途径。该学生将结合体内成像分析、遗传学、分子生物学和化学来研究核钙如何调节硝酸盐信号。

Nitrogen (N) is an essential mineral element required in abundance for plant growth. Plants take up inorganic forms of N (mainly nitrate) in soils and assimilate them for the biosynthesis of various N-containing organic compounds. Nitrogen is one of the most expensive nutrients to supply and commercial nitrate fertilizers represent the major cost in crops production. Paradoxically, it has been estimated that 50-70% of the nitrogen provided to the soil is lost, giving rise to soil and water pollution as well as global warming through emissions of nitrous oxide. Lowering fertilizer input and breeding crops with better nitrogen use efficiency is one of the main goals of plant nutrition research. This project will define a new regulatory pathway at the crossroads between nitrate signalling, nuclear calcium, and root architecture development. The student will use a combination of in vivo imaging analyses, genetics, molecular biology, and chemistry to study how nuclear calcium regulates nitrate signalling.