Regulation of sulphur partitioning between primary and secondary metabolism

在过去二十年，我们通过减少排放，例如二氧化硫，在改善空气质素方面取得重大进展。然而，其结果是，自然降到地球表面的硫减少了，土壤中的硫也就缺乏了。这已成为英国农业面临的一个严重问题。硫对所有生物都是必不可少的，因为它结合在蛋白质中，并在许多其他对生命至关重要的化合物中发现。为了制造这种化合物，植物需要从土壤中吸收硫酸盐，将其还原，并将其并入氨基酸中。除了这些“初级”化合物外，植物还会合成许多其他具有生物活性的“次级”分子，这些分子对植物的气味、颜色或味道都有影响。它们还有助于保护植物免受昆虫、真菌或细菌的侵害。一些作物，如油菜，会产生大量这种次生化合物，因此它们的生长需要比其他植物更多的硫磺。我们想知道植物是如何在初级产品和次级产品之间分配它们吸收的硫磺的。我们将集中讨论一个蛋白质家族，我们认为它们负责控制硫磺的流动。我们将创造这些蛋白质不再活跃的植物，以及拥有更多这些蛋白质的植物。对这些植物进行比较，将使我们能够了解硫是如何在初级化合物和次级化合物之间分配的。我们想要测试，通过产生较少二次化合物来节省硫的植物是否会像普通植物一样健康。这个项目的结果可以让我们开发出更有效地吸收和利用硫磺的农作物，减少对化肥的需求。

In the last two decades we have made great progress in improving our air quality by reducing emissions, e.g. of sulphur dioxide. As a consequence, however, less sulphur is falling naturally onto the Earth`s surface and there is a lack of sulphur in the soil. This has become a serious problem for UK agriculture. Sulphur is essential for all living organisms as it is bound in proteins and found in many other compounds vital for life. To make such compounds, plants need to take up sulphate from the soil, reduce it, and incorporate it into amino acids. In addition to these 'primary' compounds, plants synthesize a great variety of other biologically active 'secondary' molecules that are responsible for scent, colour, or the taste of plants. They also help in the defence of the plants against insects, fungi, or bacteria. Some crops, such as oilseed rape, produce a lot of these secondary compounds and therefore require more sulphur for their growth than other plants. We want to know how plants divide the sulphur they take up between the primary and secondary products. We will concentrate on one family of proteins that we believe are responsible for control of sulphur flow. We will create plants where these proteins will no longer be active and plants which will have much more of them. Comparing such plants will enable us to understand how the sulphur is divided between primary and secondary compounds. We want to test, whether plants that save sulphur by producing less of the secondary compounds will be as healthy as normal plants. The results of this project could allow us to develop crop plants that take up and use sulphur more efficiently, reducing the need for fertilisers.