A modelling portal for the UK plant systems biology community

这个项目是关于植物生长模型的。在这里，“模型”这个词并不是指物理对象，而是指一种表示某物的数学方法。这种模型由一系列数学方程组成，通常使用计算机即可求解。通过向这些方程提供温度、可用氮量和植物可以捕捉的光能等因素的值，这些模型使预测植物将如何生长成为可能。许多可用的模型是针对农作物的，它们可以估计一种作物的产量，无论它是结出谷物的小麦植物，还是生长新木材的树，还是为动物提供草的牧场。一些更复杂的问题也代表了植物与其他物种之间的相互作用，如细菌和真菌，它们改善或减少了植物根或食叶草食动物对营养的吸收。从历史上看，这些模型在整个植物、农民的田地甚至是景观的水平上工作，因为在这些水平上收集数据是最直接的。植物生长模型是一个已经蓬勃发展了几十年的研究领域，英国在这一领域尤其强大，但在现代分子科学家中并不广为人知。在“系统生物学”研究的新时代，科学家们能够捕捉到关于在更精细的尺度上发生的过程的大量数据--例如，单个叶子或根，甚至是单个细胞内的过程。挑战是利用这些海量信息来预测植物的基因构成如何控制它的生长方式以及与环境的相互作用。越来越明显的是，实现这一目标所需的许多数学技术与作物建模师使用的技术是相同的。本项目的目的是以一种用户友好的方式，使系统生物学研究人员可以通过互联网获得现有的作物模型，而不依赖于任何特定的计算机软件。这意味着系统生物学家可以调整模型以供自己使用，并将它们与其他在细胞水平上工作的模型联系起来。我们想要开发一个门户网站，为模型本身提供一站式的互联网商店，举例说明它们是如何应用的，并提供足够详细的解释，以允许其他人采用它们。我们还将提供一个论坛，让社会各界可以为进一步的发展提供意见和建议，并在未来使用这些模式和其他模式时相互帮助。除了植物系统生物学专家外，该门户网站还将对作物科学家和政策制定者有用。预测的气候变化将意味着我们目前的作物在未来的表现将有所不同--这些模型将有助于预测这种差异是有益的，还是会导致作物减产或歉收。他们还将帮助研究人员和育种者开发用于新用途的作物，如生物能源。一些模型有能力预测整个生态系统，如森林，在不断变化的条件下的行为。模型对植物科学研究、农业和环境的未来很重要，重要的是使它们尽可能广泛地可获得和使用/这是我们项目的目的。

This project is all about plant growth models. Here, the word 'model' does not refer to a physical object but instead means a mathematical way of representing something. This kind of model consists of a series of mathematical equations which can be solved, normally using a computer. By feeding these equations with values for factors like temperature, amount of nitrogen available and light energy that plants can capture, the models make it possible to predict how a plant will grow. Many of the models available are for crop plants, and they can give estimates of how much a crop will produce, whether it is a wheat plant yielding grain, a tree growing new wood, or a pasture providing grass to feed animals. Some of the more complicated ones also represent interactions between plants and other species, such as bacteria and fungi which improve or reduce nutrient uptake by plant roots, or leaf-eating herbivores. Historically, these models work at the level of a whole plant, a farmer's field or even a landscape, because it has been most straightforward to collect data at these levels. Modelling plant growth, an area of research which has flourished for several decades, is one in which the UK has been especially strong, but which is not well known among modern molecular scientists. In the new era of 'systems biology' research, scientists are able to capture large amounts of data about processes that happen on a much finer scale - an individual leaf or root, for example, or even within a single cell. The challenge is to use this mass of information to predict how a plant's genetic makeup controls the way it grows and interacts with its environment. It is becoming clear that many of the mathematical techniques needed to make this possible are the same as those used by the crop modellers. The aim of the present project is to make existing crop models available to systems biology researchers via the Internet in a user-friendly way that is independent of any particular computer software. This means that systems biologists can adapt models for their own use, and connect them with other models that work at the cell level. We want to develop a portal, a one-stop Internet shop for the models themselves, examples of how they have been applied, and explanations detailed enough to allow other people to adopt them. We will also provide a forum so that the community can add comments and suggestions for further development, and help each other in using these and other models in the future. In addition to plant systems biology experts, the portal will be of use to crop scientists and to policy-makers. Predicted climate change will mean that our current crops will perform differently in the future - the models will help predict whether the difference will be beneficial or cause loss of yield or failure of crops. They will also aid researchers and breeders in developing crops for new uses, such as bioenergy. Some models have the capability to predict the behaviour of whole ecosystems, such as forests, under changing conditions. Models are important for the future of plant science research, agriculture and the environment and it is important to make them as widely accessible and usable as possible / this is the purpose of our project.