Environmental cues triggering pluripotency and plantlet development in Kalanchoë

细胞如何决定自己的命运是生物学中一个由来已久的基本问题。与动物细胞相比，植物细胞在细胞命运变化方面表现出令人难以置信的可塑性。分化的植物体细胞可以被触发去分化并恢复其多能性。尽管这一现象具有潜在的农业影响和基本的生物学意义，但关于“触发多能性”的研究在很大程度上还没有在植物中得到探索。卡兰乔埃(万千之母)物种通过在树叶边缘形成幼树(植株)进行无性繁殖。在植株形成过程中，叶缘的体细胞改变细胞命运，恢复多能性，形成植株。然而，关于在植株启动过程中触发这种细胞命运变化的潜在分子和遗传机制和线索，人们知之甚少。本项目的主要目的是揭示与植株分化有关的分子遗传机制。具体地说，您将调查营养感应主调节器的作用，即雷帕霉素(TOR)的靶标在这一过程中的作用。首先，您将使用最先进的技术组合来确定启动的时间和地点。然后，您将通过抑制TOR途径来研究TOR在植株形成过程中的作用。您还将执行激光捕获显微切割(LCM)和RNA-Seq，以确定关键的调控因子和途径，并建立这一过程的集成模型。此外，你还将研究营养供应，主要是作为光合作用产物的糖，是如何被TOR感知并影响植株形成的。该项目使用的多学科方法将为生物化学、生物物理和特定分子成分如何合作触发多能性和启动植物发育提供新的见解，这可用于解释更广泛的发育过程。因此，该项目将在植物分子科学的尖端技术方面提供广泛的培训，并使你能够为粮食安全的重要发展进程作出实质性贡献。

How a cell determines its fate is one of the longstanding and fundamental questions in Biology. Compared with animal cells, plant cells demonstrate incredible plasticity in terms of cell fate changes. A differentiated plant somatic cell can be triggered to de-differentiate and to regain its pluripotency. Despite the potential agricultural impact and fundamental biological importance of this phenomenon, research on "triggered pluripotency" has been left largely unexplored in plants. Kalanchoë (Mother of thousands) species propagate asexually by forming baby plants (plantlets) on the edge of leaves. During plantlet formation, somatic cells in the leaf margin change their cell fate and regain pluripotency to form plantlets. However, little is known about underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms and cues triggering such a cell fate change during plantlet initiation. The main aim of this project is to unravel the molecular genetic mechanisms involved in the plantlet initiation. Specifically, you will investigate the role of the nutrition sensing master regulator, TARGET OF RAPAMYCIN (TOR) during this process. First, you will determine when and where the initiation occurs using a combination of state of the art technologies. Then you will investigate the role of TOR during plantlet formation by inhibiting the TOR pathway. You will also perform laser capture microdissection (LCM) and RNA-Seq to identify key regulators and pathways and to build an integrated model of this process. Furthermore, you will investigate how nutrient supply, primarily sugars as the products of photosynthesis, is sensed by TOR and affects plantlet formation. The multidisciplinary approaches used in this project will deliver novel insights into how biochemical, biophysical and specific molecular components cooperate to trigger pluripotency and initiate plantlet development, which can be used to explain broader developmental processes. As such this project will provide a broad training in cutting edge techniques in plant molecular sciences and allow you to make a substantive contribution to important developmental processes underlying food security.