Award details

Gibberellin and phytochrome action

Reference	BBS/E/J/00000583
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Nicholas Harberd
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	1,044,193
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1997
End date	25/06/2008
Duration	134 months

Abstract

Understanding the regulation of plant growth is key to the advancement of fundamental plant science and to its strategic application in the development of sustainable agriculture. This project works on a family of endogenous plant growth regulatory proteins that control plant growth by regulating gene activity in the nucleus of plant cells (a family of proteins known as the DELLAs). The DELLAs integrate internal plant signals (eg the gibberellin phytohormones) and external environmental cues (eg light signals detected via the phytochrome photoreceptor) in the regulation of plant growth. The strategic importance of DELLAs is demonstrated by the fact that the high-yielding semi-dwarf wheats of the 'green-revolution' express specific mutant DELLAs that tailor the growth of the wheat plant to the field environment and accordingly increase the yield of the wheat crop. Recent results show that DELLAs are central to the way in which plants respond to a wide variety of environmental variables. Current work attempts to define (at the level of fundamental understanding) how DELLAs perform this important role, and then to use this fundamental knowledge in the development of crop plants that are more resiliant to environmental stresses or that require less artificial inputs whilst maintaining high yield.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
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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