Regulation of the plant metabolic network during stress

在田间，植物必须应对环境的波动，这些波动在极端情况下会给植物带来压力。在这种胁迫条件下，植物的生长发育会严重迟缓。在农业方面，这种次优生长条件导致产量显著降低，是农业生产率逐年变化的主要原因。此外，全球气候变化可能会极大地加剧这一问题。因此，迫切需要开发对非生物胁迫条件更具耐受性的主粮作物新品种。许多现代作物品种是广泛育种的产物，旨在最大限度地提高收获器官的生物量。然而，在野生祖先物种中存在的性状，如抗逆性，往往在繁殖过程中丢失。成功地重新引入这些特征将取决于对其分子基础的详细了解。植物对胁迫条件的反应的关键组成部分之一是其代谢的适应性变化。如果我们要成功培育出新的抗逆性作物品种，了解这些代谢重组的本质是至关重要的。因此，提出的工作的目的是解剖模式植物拟南芥氧化应激期间代谢网络的调节。将特别注意区分发生在基因表达水平上的变化和直接作用于蛋白质的变化（所谓的翻译后变化）。

In the field, plants have to cope with environmental fluctuations which at their extremes cause stress to the plant. Under such stress conditions, the growth and development of the plant can be severely retarded. In an agricultural context, such sub-optimal growth conditions cause significant lowering of yields and are a major cause of variations in agricultural productivity from year to year. Furthermore, global climate changes are likely to dramatically exacerbate this problem. There is thus a pressing need to develop new varieties of staple crops that are more tolerant of abiotic stress conditions. Many modern crop species are the product of extensive breeding designed to maximise the biomass of the harvested organs. However, traits such as stress tolerance that are present in the wild progenitor species are often lost during the breeding process. Successful reintroduction of such traits will be dependent upon a detailed understanding of their molecular basis. One fo the key components of the response of plants to stress conditions is adaptive change in their metabolism. Understanding the nature of these metabolic reconfigurations is vital if we are to successfully generate new stress-resistant varieties of crops. Accordingly, the aim of the proposed work is to dissect the regulation of the metabolic network during oxidative stress in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Particular attention will be paid to discriminating between changes that occur at the level of gene expression and those that operate directly on proteins (so-called post-translational changes).