Functional Analysis of Metacaspases in Plant Development and Cell Death.

植物发育和细胞死亡中元半胱天冬酶的功能分析。

• 批准号: 0744709
• 负责人: Eric Lam
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-04-01 至 2012-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0744709&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Functional; Analysis; Metacaspases; Plant; Development

Programmed cell death (PCD) is recognized to be a fundamental process found in all eukaryotes ranging from yeasts, plants and animals. In animal apoptosis, a specialized form of PCD, the core death engine is highly conserved with a family of specialized cysteine proteases called caspases as the determinate executioner. In plants and yeasts, however, canonical caspases are absent from sequenced genomes and instead, a family of distantly related cysteine proteases called metacaspases were identified through structure-based iterative database searches. In this proposed project, the function of selected metacaspase genes in the model plant Arabidopsis (mouse-ear cress) will be studied through detailed genetic, molecular, cell biological and biochemical analyses. Specifically, the investigator aims to uncover some of the upstream regulators and downstream targets of metacaspases. This proposed work will thus provide the foundation for a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory pathways involving metacaspases and cell death regulation in higher plants. Comparison to related studies with animal caspases will provide a better framework for understanding the evolution of PCD in higher eukaryotes. In a broader context, this study should contribute to our understanding of plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses since PCD is often associated with these conditions, and thus provide important knowledge for future crop improvement. This project will also have broader impact in providing a diversified, interdisciplinary training to postdoctoral researchers. In addition, the investigators will also provide research experience for undergraduate, graduate and high school students through the Douglass Women in Science and George H. Cook Scholar programs of Rutgers University, and the RISE summer research program for high schools.

程序性细胞死亡（PCD）被认为是从酵母，动物和动物的所有真核生物中发现的一个基本过程。 在动物凋亡（一种专门的PCD形式）中，核心死亡引擎高度保守，其中一个专门的半胱氨酸蛋白酶（称为caspases）是确定的执行者。 然而，在植物和酵母中，测序基因组中不存在规范胱天蛋白酶，相反，通过基于结构的迭代数据库搜索来鉴定出一个遥远相关的半胱氨酸蛋白酶的家族。 在该提出的项目中，将通过详细的遗传，分子，细胞生物学和生化分析来研究模型植物拟南芥（Mouse-Ear-Cress）中选定的肠胃菜基因的功能。 具体而言，研究人员旨在揭示一些上游调节剂和下游目标。 因此，这项提出的工作将为涉及含量植物的掌酶和细胞死亡调节的调节途径的全面理解奠定基础。与动物胱天蛋白酶相关研究的比较将为理解高等真核生物中PCD的演变提供更好的框架。 在更广泛的背景下，这项研究应有助于我们对植物对生物和非生物应力的反应的理解，因为PCD通常与这些疾病有关，从而为未来的作物改善提供了重要的知识。该项目在为博士后研究人员提供多元化的跨学科培训方面也将产生更大的影响。 此外，调查人员还将通过科学的道格拉斯妇女和罗格斯大学的乔治·H·库克学者计划以及高中崛起的夏季研究计划为本科，研究生和高中生提供研究经验。