Award details

403c: Regulation of abscisic acid biosynthesis

Reference	BBS/E/H/00032641
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Andrew Thompson
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Warwick
Department	Warwick HRI
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	254,900
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2003
End date	31/03/2005
Duration	24 months

Abstract

This project aims to improve our understanding of the regulation of abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis and to develop strategies for enhancing water use and dormancy through manipulating ABA biosynthesis and response. Our work has proven that 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) is the key rate-limiting step in ABA synthesis in green tissues. Constitutive over-expression of NCED in tomato results in reduced stomatal conductance, but also has consequences for plant development and environmental flexibility. Our first objective is to separate stomatal control from effects on development. Several approaches will be developed to allow increased ABA biosynthesis, and the effects of excess ABA, to be targeted to specific cell-types, tissues and developmental stages. Over-expression of NCED in roots, where epoxycarotenoid substrates are limited, has a weak effect on ABA accumulation. A second objective of this project is to identify additional rate-limiting steps in roots by monitoring the metabolome and transcriptome following induction of single transgenes encoding biosynthetic enzymes. Rapid transcription of NCED in response to low turgor is a key event in ABA accumulation, however nothing is known about how this is controlled. A third objective is to identify turgor responsive promoter elements, and interacting transcription factors.

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

I accept the terms and conditions of use (opens in new window)

export PDF file

back to list new search