植物激素乙烯及茉莉酸通路中转录因子DNA复合物的结构与功能研究

Many plant hormones play very important roles in plant physiological processes such as growth, development, reproduction, senescence and resistance to environmental stresses. Research activities related to the plant hormone signaling pathways have been very active recent decades. A number of novel pathways with many new proteins molecules have been discovered and identified related to plant hormones signaling, and many of these molecules are specific to plants. The structural studies of these proteins with their complexes with nuclear acids, or with other protein partners will reveal new mechanistic insights about the plant hormone function and their evolutionary aspects. The detailed understanding of the function of the plant hormones will further promote their application in agricultural fields. This research proposal presented here sets the goal to study the structure and function of two important transcription factors in Arabidopsis thaliana, EIN3 and MYC2 which are master controllers in the ethylene and Jasmonate signal transduction pathways respectively. We plan to solve the crystal structures of the complexes of these two families of proteins (different truncations or full length) with their cognate DNA sequences by co-crystallization and/or CryoEM techniques, and with necessary functional experiments, trying to understand the regulation and interaction mechanisms of proteins within the ethylene and Jasmonate signal transduction pathways.

植物激素在植物的生长、发育、繁殖、衰老以及抵抗环境压力过程中发挥着十分重要的作用，对于植物特有激素的相关信号传导通路的研究近年来非常活跃，鉴定出了很多新型信号传导通路及相关蛋白分子，许多蛋白分子是植物中所特有的，对于这些生物大分子及其复合物的结构研究将揭示新的机理及生物大分子演化规律，从而进一步理解这些激素的功能并进而促进它们在农业上的应用。 本申请希望通过对拟南芥中两类具有相互交叉功能的重要激素，乙烯及茉莉酸（Jasmonate, JA）信号传导通路中的转录因子EIN3及MYC2 家族及其相应DNA复合物的结构与功能研究，解析不同功能结构域蛋白-DNA的复合物晶体结构，并且尝试结晶或者利用CryoEM解析其全长复合物结构，结合功能实验，对乙烯和茉莉酸信号通路及其相互作用进行深入系统的研究。