Control of flux and adaptive responses at the interface of primary and secondary plant metabolism

植物是加拿大农业生产和许多其他经济部门的基础。通过光合作用，它们将二氧化碳等环境污染物转化为未来的原材料。它们为我们提供食物、药物，以及可持续燃料生产的关键，这要归功于使植物独特的复杂代谢途径。讽刺的是，我们对它们的新陈代谢知之甚少。推进我们对这一主题的认识将为开发技术创造新的机会，以更少的土地生产更有营养的食物，以更少的浪费生产救命药物，以及更高效的燃料。该提案详细阐述了阐明植物如何将矿物质转化为有价值的天然产物，环境线索如何改变其代谢优先级，以及小信号分子如何介导这一过程的长期愿景。简单地说，这个项目旨在了解植物的新陈代谢是如何被控制的。这将涉及严格的数学技术的应用，定量定义这些复杂的生物过程的控制点使用模型。这些模型的数据是通过使用同位素标记研究和质谱法对整个植物的代谢过程进行直接的生理学相关测量获得的，这是我研究计划的定义特征。******我的项目涉及初级（基本）和次级（专门）植物代谢的界面，重点是产生高价值天然产物萜类化合物的生物合成途径。这些无处不在的化合物通过抗虫害、营养强化和植物生物工厂的制药生产为加拿大经济提供了无数的生物技术和农业机会。植物将大气中的二氧化碳转化为萜类化合物和许多其他化合物，为它们的生长和发育提供动力，同时感知周围环境的压力，并相应地转移资源。这种平衡行为，像精细调节的经济一样分配代谢资源，强烈地有利于它们的生存，并对我们诱导植物积累对人类有益的高价值产品的能力产生了巨大影响。因此，这一建议也关注一组小信号分子，它们作为代谢控制开关，重新编程植物如何将其资源分配给生长，防御或有价值的次生代谢物，如萜类。这种定量的、多学科的植物代谢研究方法将在拟南芥中建立一种基于逐途径碳利用分析的新型代谢路线图。这种植物代谢的新方法将为合成生物学家创造合作机会，以解决二氧化碳水平上升、化石燃料减少以及使用下一代植物对安全、高营养产品需求增加的问题

Plants are the basis for agricultural production and many other sectors of Canada's economy. Through photosynthesis, they convert environmental pollutants like CO2 into the raw materials of tomorrow. They provide us with food, medicines, and the key to sustainable fuel production thanks to the complex metabolic pathways that make plants unique. Ironically, we understand little about their metabolism. Advancing our knowledge of this subject will create new opportunities to develop technologies that generate more nutritious food on less land, life-saving medicines with less waste, and more efficient fuels. This proposal details a long term vision for elucidating how plants convert minerals into valuable natural products, how environmental cues alter their metabolic priorities, and how small signaling molecules mediate this process. Simply put, this program aims to understand how the metabolism of plants is controlled. This will involve the application of rigorous mathematical techniques to quantitatively define the control points of these complex biological processes using models. The data for these models are obtained from direct, physiologically relevant measurements of metabolic processes in whole plants using isotopic labeling studies and mass spectrometry, the defining feature of my research program.****** My program addresses the interface of primary (essential) and secondary (specialized) plant metabolism, focusing on a biosynthetic pathway yielding a high value group of natural products known as terpenoids. These ubiquitous compounds provide myriad biotechnological and agricultural opportunities for the Canadian economy via pest resistance, nutritional fortification, and pharmaceutical production in plant-based biofactories. Plants convert CO2 in the atmosphere to terpenoids and many other compounds needed to power their growth and development, all while sensing stress in their surroundings and shifting their resources accordingly. This balancing act, which allocates metabolic resources like a finely tuned economy, strongly favors their survival and has a dramatic impact on our ability to coax plants into accumulating high value products of benefit to humans. Therefore, this proposal also focuses on a group of small signaling molecules which act as metabolic control switches, reprogramming how plants allocate their resources toward growth, defense, or valuable secondary metabolites like terpenoids. This quantitative, multidisciplinary approach to studying plant metabolism will create a new type of metabolic road map in Arabidopsis based on pathway by pathway' carbon use analysis. This novel approach to plant metabolism will create collaborative opportunities with synthetic biologists to address rising CO2 levels, diminishing fossil fuels, and increasing demand for safe, highly nutritious produce using next generation plants.**