This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
PI name: Zhen-Ming Pei Project no. IOS-0848263 Project title: Functional analysis of Arabidopsis NSC1 Ca2+ permeable channels
Intellectual merit: Global environmental change will affect crop production and plant ecosystems, and inevitably impact the overall health of the human population. In order to deal with changes in crop production caused by global climate change, tt is crucial to understand how plants sense environmental signals. It is known that various external signals trigger elevations in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i), which are mediated by Ca2+ channels in the plasma membrane and/or endomembranes. However, the molecular nature of these Ca2+ channels remains largely elusive in plants. The long-term goal of the PI is to elucidate the Ca2+ machinery in plants. The PI and his research group have used an expression cloning approach and isolated a gene encoding NON-SELECTIVE CALCIUM CHANNEL 1 (NSC1) in Arabidopsis. NSC1 is localized likely to the nuclear membrane in planta, forms Ca2+-permeable channels and mediates Ca2+ flux. Interestingly, NSC1 regulates basal [Ca2+]i and B. subtilis biofilm formation in roots. The specific aims of the project are to (a) characterize the ion channel properties of NSC1 using heterologous expression systems, (b) reconstitute the NSC1 into planar lipid bilayers, (c) determine the subcellular localization of NSC1 in Arabidopsis, and (d) determine the roles of NSC1 in controlling basal [Ca2+]i and regulating B. subtilis biofilm formation. As NSC1 is the first endomembrane Ca2+ channel cloned so far that controls [Ca2+]i, this study should allow a better understanding of plant Ca2+ machinery and plant response to the environment.
Broader impacts: Acid rain affects tree growth in forests across the world. It depletes Ca2+ from forests and soils, affects Ca2+ homeostasis in trees, and alters their responses to environmental signals, possibly including communication with beneficial microorganisms. The PI is leading a group to study how acid rain affects forests (in China), aiming to identify molecular targets for genetically engineering forest species. This project will provide unique opportunities for professors and students from primarily teaching universities to conduct research. One postdoc, one graduate student and several undergraduate students will participate in this project. Over half of them are female and one is minority. The results from the project will be incorporated into the PI?s three undergraduate courses: Molecular Plant Physiology, Sensory Signal Transduction, and Cell and Developmental Biology. Undergraduate students, including members of underserved minorities, will participate in the research program, as well as professors from primarily undergraduate-serving institutions.
