CAREER: The Adaptation of Plant Development to Environmental Stress

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

0238529 Malamy Plant survival depends on adaptation to adverse conditions. Harnessing the plant's own complex machinery for adaptation to environment stresses has tremendous potential as a strategy for improvement of crop yields and extending the geographical range for crop growth. One plant adaptation mechanism is to optimize organ number and location in accordance with the availability and distribution of resources. Despite the importance of this developmental response, the molecular mechanisms that underlie morphological adaptation are essentially unknown. The Principal Investigator has found that the development of lateral roots in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana is dramatically repressed by mild drought stress, providing a model in which to study adaptation. To this end, her lab has isolated lateral root development (lrd) mutants that are defective in this response. Based on wild-type and mutant studies, they have defined the LRD pathway that directs root system adaptation. Key feature of the pathway are: (1) the plant hormones abscicic acid (ABA) and auxin (IAA) play critical opposing roles in mediating the pathway; (2) lrd mutants show aberrant phenotypes in several ABA-mediated responses, including a marked tolerance to dehydration; and (3) the ERECTA gene, which encodes a putative shoot-specific receptor protein kinase, plays an essential role in the osmotic repression of lateral root formation. Based on these findings, the researchers will characterize the function of the LRD and ERECTA genes in adaptation, and study the role of hormone accumulation and localization in the LRD pathway. The long-term goal of the project is to learn how to use a plant's innate ability to adjust to environmental stress for crop improvement. The Principal Investigator's interest in innovative approaches to solving the worldwide problem of food deficit has also led her to design a course to expose students to this complex problem. The course is designed to allow upper level undergraduates from many disciplines to become personally invested in issues of global importance such as famine and unequal distribution of food. Working with a multi-disciplinary team of instructors, students will learn about the biological, political and economic issues involved in world hunger and discuss possible solutions. A key part of this course will be the involvement of students in research projects conducted by the instructors, and the opportunity to continue this research beyond the scope of the class. Such early awareness and involvement in this global problem will hopefully influence students in their career choices, guiding them into areas which will generate further knowledge and progress in providing adequate food to afflicted areas.