Auxin as a key regulator of pod shatter in Arabidopsis and Brassica

所有开花植物都结果。虽然我们通常认为水果是美味而有营养的食物，但植物用它们来保护和滋养将产生下一代的种子。开花植物的果实形状和大小各不相同。它们的大小从一粒食盐到重达1000磅的巨型南瓜不等。控制果实发育的许多潜在机制是由称为激素的发育调节剂介导的。这些机制在不同的植物物种中是共有的，因此在一个植物物种中进行研究是有意义的，作为一种研究工具——所谓的模式植物——具有明显的优势。模式植物应该在短时间内（一个月内）从一颗种子生长到结果，并且相对容易种植。小的拟南芥植株具有这些优势，我们已经知道一些控制拟南芥果实发育的关键遗传成分。在英国，最重要的作物之一是油菜，在春天和初夏，油菜会把风景染成亮黄色。油菜籽富含营养油脂，主要用于烹饪和油炸。近年来，种子油作为汽车、公共汽车和卡车的生物燃料也越来越受欢迎，有朝一日可能取代柴油和汽油。油菜籽果实在成熟时变干，并在一个称为豆荚破碎的过程中打开，使它们的种子分散。不幸的是，田地里的所有果实并不是在同一时间干枯的，这使得油菜农民很难把握收割时间并获得所有的种子。事实上，每年平均损失15-20%的收成。在风特别大的年份或潮湿天气延迟收获的年份，这种损失可能达到50%。尽管大小差异很大，但拟南芥和油菜的果实非常相似，我们从对拟南芥的研究中得知，植物激素生长素可以抑制豆荚破碎的过程。在拟研究项目中，我们将在模式植物拟南芥中扩展这一机制的知识，并在此基础上开发减少油菜荚果破碎的技术。总之，我们相信我们的工作将为农民和消费者以及环境提供实质性的好处。

All flowering plants produce fruit. Whereas we often think of fruit as tasty and nutritious food, the plants use them to protect and nurse the seed that will give rise to the next generation. Fruit occur in extremely diverse shapes and sizes among flowering plants. They range from the size of a grain of table salt to the giant pumpkins that can weigh more than 1000 pounds. Many of the underlying mechanisms, which control fruit development, are mediated by developmental regulators called hormones. These mechanisms are shared among different plant species, and it therefore makes sense to study them in a plant species, which has obvious advantages as a research tool - a so-called model plant. A model plant should grow from a single seed to produce fruit in a short period of time (within a month) and be relatively easy to grow. The small Arabidopsis plant has these advantages and we already know some of the key genetic components that control Arabidopsis fruit development. One of the most important crop species in the UK is oilseed rape that colours the landscape in bright yellow patches during spring and early summer. Oilseed rape produces seed with a high content of nutritious oil that we use mainly in cooking and frying. In recent years seed oils have also become increasingly popular as biofuels for cars, buses, and trucks and may some day substitute diesel and gasoline. Oilseed rape fruit dry out at maturity and open to allow their seed to be dispersed in a process called pod shatter. Unfortunately, all the fruit in the field do not dry out at the same time making it difficult for oilseed rape farmers to time their harvest and obtain all the seed. In fact, an average of 15-20% of the harvest is lost every year. This loss can reach 50% in years with particularly windy conditions or when wet weather delays harvest. Despite a remarkable size difference, fruit from Arabidopsis and oilseed rape are very similar and we know from work in Arabidopsis that the plant hormone auxin can inhibit the pod shattering process. In the proposed research project, we will both expand our knowledge of this mechanism in the model plant, Arabidopsis, and develop technology to reduce pod shatter in oilseed rape based on that knowledge. In conclusion, we believe that our work in will provide substantial benefits for both farmers and consumers, as well as for the environment.