Genetic regulation of senescence, nutrient remobilisation and grain protein content in wheat

小麦等主要作物的产量必须增加50%，以满足全球人口的粮食需求，预计到2050年全球人口将超过90亿。小麦在人类饮食中起着几个重要的作用，提供了人类20%的卡路里和20%的蛋白质。这种双重作用提出了一个挑战，因为通常在产量和蛋白质含量之间存在负面权衡。这意味着，当我们的目标是增加产量时，蛋白质含量可能会降低，这可能对人类营养产生不利影响。此外，将小麦粉加工成面包需要高蛋白质水平，而较低的蛋白质水平将导致面包质量差。该项目的重点是了解控制产量和蛋白质含量之间负平衡的分子机制。这些知识将使小麦品种的产量和蛋白质含量得到提高。在籽粒发育过程中，植物可能继续进行光合作用，从而提高产量，或者植物可能开始衰老，使营养物质从营养组织重新转移到发育中的籽粒中，从而增加蛋白质含量。我们已经确定了一组候选转录因子，调节小麦的衰老，我们假设也将发挥作用，在调节营养再动员。在这个项目中，我们将研究这些转录因子在调节衰老和养分再动员中的作用，并确定它们对产量和籽粒蛋白质含量的影响。

Production of staple crops such as wheat must increase by 50 % to meet the food requirements of the global population which is projected to exceed 9 billion people by 2050. Wheat plays several important roles in the human diet providing 20 % of calories and 20 % of protein eaten by humankind. This dual role presents a challenge because in general there is a negative trade-off between yield and protein content. This means that when we aim to increase yield, protein content may decrease which could have an adverse effect on human nutrition. Furthermore, high protein levels are required to process wheat flour into bread, and lower protein levels would result in poor quality bread. This project focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms governing the negative trade-off between yield and protein content. This knowledge will allow wheat varieties with improved yield and enhanced protein content to be developed.During grain development, the plant may either continue to photosynthesise which could increase yield, or the plant may start to senesce, allowing nutrients to be remobilised from vegetative tissues into the developing grain and thus increase protein content. We have identified a set of candidate transcription factors which regulate senescence in wheat which we hypothesise will also play a role in regulating nutrient remobilisation. In this project we will investigate the roles of these transcription factors in regulating senescence and nutrient remobilisation and determine their effects on yield and grain protein content.