Cold Signaling and the Regulation of CBF Genes in Arabidopsis

拟南芥中 CBF 基因的冷信号传导和调控

• 批准号: 0241450
• 负责人: Jian-Kang Zhu
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-05-15 至 2004-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0241450&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cold; Signaling; Regulation; CBF; Genes

Low temperature is one of the most common environmental factors influencing the growth, development and survival of plants. Understanding plant responses to low temperature not only helps illuminate fundamental mechanisms of biological low temperature sensing, but also is of critical importance for agriculture because chilling and freezing stresses greatly limit crop production. The long-term goal of this research is to understand the mechanisms of cold sensing and signal transduction in plants. This project focuses on how cold temperatures switch on the expression of genes that are important for plant cold tolerance. Previous work has shown that cold-induction of plant genes is controlled by a transcriptional cascade where cold first triggers the transcription of genes encoding the CBF family of transcriptional factors that in turn activate the expression of a large number of downstream cold-responsive genes. How the CBF genes are induced by cold is currently poorly understood. Preliminary work has identified several Arabidopsis mutants that are impaired in the cold induction of CBF genes. The project will characterize and clone one of the genetic loci defined by these mutants. Gene expression profiling using whole genome microarrays will be carried out on this mutant. The project will lead to the isolation of a critical regulatory gene for low temperature responses. The work will significantly advance our understanding of biological sensing of low temperature cues and enhance our ability to develop rational strategies for engineering chilling and freezing tolerant crops. To broaden the impacts of the research, the project will participate in a summer intern program to train high school science teachers, and will be involved in several other outreach programs by providing plant mutants and luminescence imaging expertise to molecular genetic lab exercises for students; and it will actively recruit and involve undergraduate students in the discovery process.

低温是影响植物生长，发育和存活的最常见环境因素之一。 了解植物对低温的反应不仅有助于阐明生物低温传感的基本机制，而且对于农业而言至关重要，因为寒冷和冷冻应力极大地限制了作物的产生。 这项研究的长期目标是了解植物中冷感应和信号转导的机制。 该项目的重点是冷温如何转换对植物冷耐受至关重要的基因表达。 先前的工作表明，植物基因的冷诱导受转录级联反应的控制，其中冷首先触发了编码CBF转录因子家族的基因的转录，从而激活了大量下游冷响应基因的表达。 目前对CBF基因的诱导诱导方式尚不清楚。 初步工作已经确定了几种在CBF基因冷诱导中受损的拟南芥突变体。 该项目将表征并克隆这些突变体定义的遗传基因座之一。使用整个基因组微阵列进行基因表达分析将在该突变体上进行。 该项目将导致分离低温反应的关键调节基因。 这项工作将大大提高我们对低温提示的生物学感知的理解，并增强我们制定理性策略以进行工程寒冷和冻结耐受作物的能力。为了扩大研究的影响，该项目将参加一项暑期实习计划，以培训高中科学教师，并通过为学生提供植物突变体和发光成像专业知识来参与其他几个外展计划。它将积极招募并让本科生参与发现过程。