Deciphering Signaling Events in the Arabidopsis NPR1 Signal Transduction Pathway

植物为我们提供生存所需的食物和氧气。这种对粮食生产植物的依赖转化为农业成为加拿大的主要雇主。然而，农业收入依赖于生产率，而限制农业产量的主要问题之一是微生物引起的疾病。为了保护农作物，农民在田里喷洒有机化学品。作物保护的一种替代或补充办法是开发对病原体具有更强抗病能力的品种。这种方法传统上一直是植物育种者关注的一个领域。然而，分子生物学家和生物化学家为这一探索带来了另一个维度。因此，他们开发了有助于育种人员选择抗病品种的分子标记。同时，他们专注于开发长期解决方案，这需要彻底了解导致病原菌抗药性的分子事件。按照这种思路，拟议中的研究计划的目标是产生新的知识，使我们离解开包含导致病原体抗药性的分子事件的黑匣子更近一步。这一目标将通过研究拟南芥NPR1途径来实现。更具体地说，将识别和表征与NPR1相互作用的蛋白质，重点是翻译后修饰。这项拟议的研究利用了现代分子生物学和蛋白质组学工具，包括串联飞行时间质谱仪进行蛋白质测序。随着时间的推移，产生的新知识将导致开发持久和环境友好的作物抗病能力。

Plants provide us with the food and oxygen we require for our survival. This dependence on plants for food production translates into agriculture being a major employer in Canada. Nevertheless, farm income is dependent on productivity and one of the major problems curtailing agricultural yield is disease caused by microorganisms. To protect crops, farmers spray their fields with organic chemicals. An alternative or complementary approach to crop protection is the development of varieties with enhanced disease resistance to pathogens. This approach has traditionally been an area of focus for plant breeders. However, molecular biologists and biochemists bring another dimension to this quest. Accordingly, they develop molecular markers useful in assisting breeders to select resistant varieties. At the same time, they focus on developing long-term solutions which require a thorough understanding of the molecular events leading to pathogen resistance. In that line of thought, the goal of the proposed research program is to generate new knowledge that will bring us one step closer to unraveling the black box that holds the molecular events leading to pathogen resistance. This goal will be accomplished by studying the arabidopsis NPR1 pathway. More specifically, proteins interacting with NPR1 will be identified and characterized with an emphasis on post-translational modifications. The proposed research makes use of modern molecular biology and proteomics tools, including protein sequencing by tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The new knowledge generated will, in time, lead to the development of durable and environmentally friendly disease resistance in crops.