Increasing fitness potential of plants through chromatin landscape analysis during stress responses

在缺水条件下诱导胁迫反应以保证存活，同时减少新梢生长以限制水分损失。因此，分析调控高等植物逆境反应和耐性的分子机制对提高植物的逆境生存能力具有重要意义。脱落酸(ABA)和茉莉酸(JAS)胁迫激素信号通路之间的相互作用是使植物生长与环境保持一致的核心。JAS引发了一种矛盾的、所谓的准备就绪状态的短暂增长停滞，随后是增长速度的重置。在干旱胁迫过程中，茉莉酸甲酯(MeJA)和脱落酸(ABA)水平升高，在干旱诱导的粮食产量损失中起重要作用。启动或硬化的过程涉及到以前经历的生物或非生物胁迫，使植物对未来的暴露更具抵抗力。染色质重塑是调控环境反应基因的重要因素。暴露在引发剂中可以改变表观遗传标记，如组蛋白修饰，增强对后续胁迫的反应。本项目将建立植物记忆胁迫信息的分子机制，以克服生物和非生物胁迫对农业生产造成的限制，因为产量下调。

Stress responses under water scarcity are induced to enable survival and simultaneously shoot growth is reduced to limit water loss. It is therefore of paramount importance to analyze the molecular mechanisms regulating stress response and tolerance in higher plants to enhance stress-survival. The interplay between abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonates (JAs) stress hormone signalling pathways is central to align plant growth with the environment. JAs evokes a transient growth arrest in an ambivalent, so called, READY-TO-GO state, followed by the reset of growth rate. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and ABA levels increase during drought stress and MeJA plays an important role in drought-induced loss of grain yield. The process of priming or hardening involves previous experience of a biotic or an abiotic stress making a plant more resistant to future exposure. Chromatin remodelling is emerging as an important factor to regulate environmental response genes. Exposure to a priming agent could modify an epigenetic mark such histone modification, enhancing responses to subsequent stress.This project will establish the molecular mechanism by which plants memorize information on stress exposure to overcome the limits that biotic and abiotic stresses impose on agricultural production due to down-regulation of yield.