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Regulation of sulphate transporter gene expression and sulphur metabolism in cereals, source-sink interactions and sulphur supply to grain tissues

Reference	BBS/E/C/00004145
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Malcolm Hawkesford
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	1,964,950
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1999
End date	31/03/2008
Duration	108 months

Abstract

S-transport has potential application, both in maximising uptake from the soil and for manipulating allocation within the plant, for example in optimising allocation to the grain. Additionally S-transport is a useful model system to evaluate the effectiveness of genetic manipulation of nutrient uptake systems. Previous work has resulted in the cloning of sulphate transporter genes in a tropical legume and in barley. These were the first plant sulphate transporters (STs) to be isolated. Two functionally distinct types were found in Stylosanthes, but only one, a high affinity root uptake system was isolated from barley. A major goal remains in the isolation of the lower affinity types in cereals (an example of which was successfully cloned in the Stylosanthes work). These are hypothesised to be responsible for internal cycling of sulphate, and particularly for S-resource allocation to the grain. Emphasis in the project is on cereals, and on wheat in particular, however some underpinning work is performed with Arabidopsis. Our specific goal is to clone the transporters responsible for delivery of S to the grain, a target that is particularly appropriate for transgenic manipulation. Our long term aims are: 1. Cloning and analysis of components of S-uptake/assimilatory pathway including the transporters and the regulatory elements. 2. Manipulation of S-metabolism to favour S-allocation to harvested parts of the plant for crop improvement. The immediate goal for this project is: The isolation of the full complement of sulphate transporters in wheat and determination of patterns of expression of uptake and partitioning in relation to nutrition and S-assimilate partitioning in plants.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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