A National Science Foundation grant award for $250,000.
The Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture is proud to Announce a National Science Foundation grant for $250,000 Awarded to PSLA's Dr. Jianhua Zhu!
Dr. Jianhua Zhu's project titled "Molecular Mechanisms of ABA Biosynthesis Under Drought Stress"was selected for funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Drought resulting from a soil water deficit is one of the most common abiotic stresses that lead to substantial losses in productivity of crops worldwide. Phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) is a very important factor in controlling abiotic stress responses in plants. ABA levels increase rapidly upon drought stress to regulate downstream responses including drought stress-responsive gene expression and stomata movements to minimize the cellular damages imposed by drought stress. While ABA accumulation itself is a well known response to drought stress, the molecular factors that control ABA accumulation and connect ABA to down stream responses are largely unknown. Previous study has identified a transcription factor HOS10 which is important for drought stress-induced ABA accumulation and drought tolerance.
In this study, Dr. Zhu aims to dissect the mode of HOS10 function in drought stress and to identify additional molecular components which regulate the increase in ABA content seen after exposure to drought stress through detailed characterization of two newly isolated mutants, ced1 and ced2, which show increased (ced1) or decreased (ced2) ABA accumulation upon drought stress. In Arabidopsis, proteins that control expression of the gene related to the mutations are likely to play an important role in early events of the sensing and signaling pathways that regulate ABA biosynthesis. Results from the proposed work will significantly advance our understanding of how ABA biosynthesis is regulated at the molecular level in order to design and implement new strategies to improve crop performance under drought stress.
This grant is part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
