Comparative functional genomics of plant resource acquisition, perception & allocation

所有的有机体都必须应对环境中可获得的资源的波动。可用资源的波动给陆地植物带来了一系列独特的问题，因为它们实际上植根于一个地方。因此，植物必须监测光、水和养分供应的变化，然后调节生长和发育，以确保资源分配与资源供应相一致。植物生长和发育的重组通常是由基因组转录组中基因组表达的变化所支撑的。之前由NSERC支持的坎贝尔实验室的研究描述了一组基因，这些基因重新配置了植物对两种关键资源--水和碳水化合物--变化的反应。这项研究确定了影响植物对资源可获得性反应的关键因素，包括相对较大的影响，如基因型和一天中的时间，以及更详细的影响，如特定的基因调节和DNA的非突变修饰(表观遗传)。这些研究涵盖了模式物种拟南芥的研究，并将结果转化为具有重要生态和经济意义的杨属(包括杨树、杨树、杨树及其杂交种)。这项拟议的研究建立在坎贝尔实验室之前的发现基础上，以测试与塑造植物资源感知和资源分配的现象的广度有关的假设。具体地说，拟议的研究计划包括一系列实验，旨在检验以下假设：1)影响植物资源分配的特定转录因子上游和下游的分子组件也影响更一般的(上游)或特定的(下游)资源分配；2)响应资源衍生信号而进行转录组重塑的一组基因定义了资源调节器控制下的调节子；3)影响基因组可及性(表观基因组)的因素塑造了因资源可获得性而产生的转录体，并深刻地影响了植物在景观上的分布。

All organisms must contend with fluctuations in the availability of resources in their environment. The fluctuation of available resources poses a unique set of problems for land plants, as they are literally rooted in one place. Consequently, plants must monitor alterations in light, water and nutrient availability, and then modulate growth and development to ensure that resource allocation is aligned with resource availability. Reconfiguration of plant growth and development is generally underpinned by changes in the expression of suites of genes in the genome, the transcriptome. Previous NSERC-supported research in the Campbell lab characterised suites of genes that reconfigured plant responses to variation in two key resources, water and carbohydrate. This research identified key contributors to plant responsiveness to resource availability, including relatively large scale influences such as genotype and time of day, as well as more detailed influences such as specific gene regulators and non-mutational modification of DNA (epigenetic). These studies spanned research on the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, and translated results to the ecologically and economically important genus, Populus (which includes aspens, cottonwoods, poplars and their hybrids). The proposed research builds on the previous discoveries in the Campbell lab as a foundation to test hypotheses related to the breadth of phenomena that shape plant resource perception and resource allocation. Specifically, the proposed research programme comprises a body of experiments aimed to test the following hypotheses: 1) molecular components that operate upstream and downstream of specific transcription factors that shape plant resource allocation also shape resource allocation either more generally (upstream) or specifically (downstream); 2) suites of genes that characterise transcriptome remodelling in response to resource-derived signals define regulons under the control of resource regulators; 3) factors that influence genome accessibility (epigenome) shape the transcriptomes that arise in response to resource availability, and profoundly influence plant distribution on the landscape.