锌指蛋白转录因子调控水稻开花时间的分子机理

项目名称： 锌指蛋白转录因子调控水稻开花时间的分子机理

项目编号： No.31300263

项目类型： 青年科学基金项目

立项/批准年度： 2014

项目学科： 生物科学

项目作者： 石金磊

作者单位： 复旦大学

项目金额： 23万元

中文摘要： 开花是植物从营养生长向生殖生长的转换过程，适时开花是植物繁衍的关键，而且与农业生产紧密相关。开花时间受到内部遗传因子和外部环境信号的共同调控。作为短日照植物水稻，开花时间对于气候和区域适应性来说是重要的农艺性状，针对这一性状的选育可以使水稻能够在各种经度、纬度和季节种植。我们实验室前期报道了水稻组蛋白甲基转移酶SDG725的生理功能及调控水稻开花时间的工作。我们未发表的研究发现：一个锌指蛋白转录因子也能够调节水稻开花时间，而且可能与SDG725具有协同作用。染色质修饰在长日照植物拟南芥中对开花时间的影响已有较多研究，但是，在水稻中组蛋白甲基化修饰如何影响开花时间还知之甚少。我们旨在通过本项目的研究，解析锌指蛋白转录因子在水稻开花过程中的生物学功能，阐明转录因子和组蛋白甲基转移酶如何共同调控水稻开花的分子机制，对于水稻分子辅助育种有着重要的理论意义与应用价值。

中文关键词： 水稻；开花时间；转录因子；组蛋白修饰；锌指蛋白

英文摘要： Flowering represents a key developmental switch from vegetative to reproductive growth. Flowering at a correct season time is crucial and has great importance for agriculture. Flowering time is fine-tuned by both endogenous factors and environmental cues.In the short-day (SD) plant rice (Oryza sativa), flowering (heading date) is an important agronomic trait for climatic and regional adaption; breeding for this trait allowed rice varieties to be selected for agriculture at various latitudes, altitudes, and seasons.We have previously reported the molecular and functional analysis of the histone methyltransferase SDG725 in regulating rice heading time. Our unpublished work showed that a zinc-finger protein is also involved in regulating rice heading date, possibly through a cooperative action with SDG725. Chromatin modifications have been extensively studied in flowering time regulation of the long-day plant Arabidopsis thaliana, but the role of histone methylations in rice flowering time regulation is just emmerging.Our project focuses on the zinc-finger transcription factor to elucidate its function in the regulation of rice flowering time, and its cooperation with histone methylation in transcription regulation. This project is expected to result in significant impact in theoretical understanding of rice flower

英文关键词： Rice；Flowering time；Transcription factor；Histone modification；Zinc finger protein