VOLATILE SIGNALING IN PHARBITIS NIL

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。决定何时开花是植物一生中必须做出的最重要的决定之一，而了解植物如何开花仍然是当今植物生物学家面临的最重要的挑战之一。众所周知，许多植物的开花是对光周期（白天和黑夜的相对长度）的响应，80多年来，研究人员一直把注意力集中在阐明启动光周期植物开花的分子事件上。在文献中，植物激素乙烯在这一过程中的作用仍然存在争议。本研究旨在探讨乙烯在短日光周期植物Pharbitis nil Chois cv Violet（日本牵牛花）光周期开花响应中的作用。本研究的目的是：(1)确定光周期是否调节白麻的乙烯产量；(2)研究光周期对乙烯生物合成的控制位点；(3)确定单靠乙烯是否可以代替光周期诱导白麻幼苗开花。这项工作的结果将进一步加深我们对植物光周期开花的理解，并可能揭示与生物钟缺陷有关的各种人类健康疾病。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Determining when to flower is one of the most important decisions a plant must make in its lifetime, and understanding the ways plants do this remains one of the most important challenges to plant biologists today. It is known that many plants flower in response to photoperiod (the relative length of day and night) and, for over eighty years, researchers have focused their attentions on elucidating the molecular events that initiate flowering in photoperiodic plants. In the literature, the role of the plant hormone ethylene in this process remains controversial. The research proposed here aims to explore the role of ethylene in the photoperiodic flowering response of the model short-day photoperiodic plant Pharbitis nil Chois cv Violet (Japanese morning glory). Objectives of this research are (1) to determine if ethylene production in P. nil is regulated by photoperiod, (2) to investigate the site of ethylene biosynthetic control in response to photoperiod, and (3) to determine if ethylene alone can induce flowering in P. nil seedlings in lieu of photoperiod. Results of this work will further our understanding of photoperiodic flowering in plants and may shed light on various human health disorders linked to defects in the circadian clock.